A Shot of Magic
by xxSnowxxAngelxx
Summary: Harry Potter remembered walking to his death to stop Voldemort. He remembered being given a choice, to return and finish it himself, to move on to see his parents and loved ones, or to try a new life somewhere else. He chose a new life. Prompto was always an odd child.. because he remembered his past life. Promptis, Mpreg later on Prompto-is-Harry. (img is temporary..)
1. Chapter 1

AN: So this is another idea I had for FFXV. I'll likely post this first though, since I don't like how I did the first bit of the other story I will be doing in this crossover 'genre'/category. This is a story of Prompto remembering a time long gone on another world, in a whole different universe, due to his early childhood. It wakes up memories that should have remained locked up until he'd had a decent childhood. But the Potter luck struck again and Harry Potter grew up as Prompto Argentum.

Disclaimer: Don't own either FFXV or HP. I have the game and am currently obsessed with it, but lack ownership. I make no money from writing this. I hope people like this and come up with their own stories 'cuz it needs more luv.

Warnings: Spoilers for the game. Spoilers for HP (but if you haven't seen Harry Potter or read it yet, you probably won't be looking at this). Canon divergence (because Harry has the Potter luck despite not being a Potter this time 'round), Yaoi, possibly even Mpreg.

now on to the story!

* * *

For as long as Prompto could remember, he'd been different from the other children of Insomnia. Not only because he was from Nifleheim, one of the people that would have, could have, become an enemy soldier, but because he was mature. So mature. He had lived another life, by another name. He had grown up first an abused little boy, constantly overworked and underfed, then as the Savior. The Chosen One. Though at first it had been "The Boy Who Lived", then there was the back and forth of whether they loved him or loathed him. The return of Voldemort had him hailed as their Savior. The Martyr whose purpose in life was to die for them. They never gave him anything in return, yet expected him to die for them?

No.

Oh, he had died. He died, and then didn't return to finish it off. He moved on and accepted his fate. He had nothing to live for there, so why go back? His family's fortune? It was nothing to him, it meant nothing. His friends? They had broken his trust too many times, they hadn't cared for him personally, only his fame and money and what being his friends would get them. So, to go from the Kings Cross to being a child again was jarring.

He had been a bit of a wreck, he will admit, back when he was three or four. He wasn't sure what age he had been when he was found and brought to Insomnia. Alone, likely (hopefully) an orphan, and how he hoped he was just an orphan and not an abandoned child. Because having his parents dead again, while it would be horrible, was nowhere near as terrible a thought as having been thrown away by strangers that didn't love him, didn't want him. He tried to not think about his unknown family.

He grew up in the care of a couple by the last name of 'Argentum'. It was a strange last name, but he rather liked to hear his new name. It had no similarity to Harry Potter, a name he was glad to shed. He was now Prompto Argentum. When he was five and understood things around him better, he'd had a good long giggle-fest at the meaning of his name, "Quick silver". It was kind of fitting really, and rather close to what he was thinking of calling his Animagus form actually.

Yeah, he'd secretly learned how to become an Animagus with Sirius' help after third year via Hedwig delivering letters. He'd done the most of his Animagus training that summer before fifth year after he'd run away to Sirius', regardless of any Order members trying to tell him otherwise. But anyway, Prompto was a weird child. Too old. Too mature. Too uninterested in the things the other kids were into. He never removed his wristbands (one to cover the code print on his wrist and the other to make it not stand out too much). He ate whatever without complaint where other children would whine about their veggies.

Prompto had honestly been so surprised that he could only gawk at the Prince the first time he had seen him. He was doing what everyone back in England would do upon realizing he was Harry [i]bloody[/i] Potter. The shame of catching himself doing so had him avoid the other boy for a good year or so. He took the time to observe as uncreepily as possible the Prince. He saw how others treated him, could swear that he felt the others discomfort at all the pandering and such everyone was doing, but that was silly wasn't it? No, Noctis surely wasn't as anti-social and such as he was, was he?

So Prompto began trying to muster up all the Gryffindor courage he could find to try approach the dark haired boy. It still took him until they were around nine or so to manage it. He had no real idea about how to approach people from either his life as Harry nor in this life, his past affecting his present. He'd find himself glancing around the playground for his whale of a cousin to come ruin his fun any time he'd tried to approach anyone, which often had the other kids think him weird and not want to play with the weird kid.

Their meeting couldn't even really be called such. He had been working on some homework, simple things that even with it being another world was basic to him, when a boy that honestly almost reminded him of the mini whale came up and snatched away his worksheet.

"Hey loser, what'cha workin on?" The boys voice was honestly worse than Dudleys was at that age, being all nasally and such. When the boy saw what he was working on, emotions flashed across his face that Prompto knew meant he would be redoing his work. "Oh, you're a nerd and a weirdo? Doing homework at school?" The stick and rat that followed him around snickered as though he'd said anything particularly intelligent and Prompto rolled his eyes.

"Give it back." Prompto spoke in an authoritative tone that had once sent grown men to do his bidding (during the war that is), but here only had the boys laughing at him in that mocking way that bullies always did.

"'Give it back', he says." The lead bully mocked, his two goons chuckling dumbly. "No. You're just an outsider and a freak. This is what happens to freaks that try to do better than us non-freaks." His last words were punctuated with the sound of ripping paper which was lost on Prompto as all other noise whited out upon hearing the word 'freak'. He saw Vernon and Dudley super-imposed over the bully whose name he honestly forgot and didn't care to learn. His vision kinda went red and the next thing he knew the boy had jumped back and away as the ripped remains of Prompto's almost completed homework literally blew up in his face.

It was, Prompto would look back with some humor, quite a lovely little explosion of fire. It certainly caught the attention of more than a few people, for magic like that was generally thought to be linked solely to the Lucian Royalty and Kingslaive and not for "nameless peasants" like him. Prompto didn't react to the explosion or the reactions of those around him as he stood and took a step towards the main bully.

"Don't. Call. Me. THAT." He roared the last word, each punctuated by sparks like the after effects of a thunder spell, ending in another minor explosion, this time at the boys feet. Prompto was about to punch the boy when Noctis was suddenly there, hand reached out to grab the fist he was about to swing at the bully, another person standing closer to the bully who'd fallen onto his bottom the moment the second blast went off. Though he was unaware of it at the time, but in that moment, with his magic surging just below his skin and manifesting as accidental magic, his eyes were the vivid green of Harry's eyes and not Prompto's usual blue.

A teacher soon broke up the fight before it became one, and Prompto got in trouble for hurting the other children, but Noctis was defending him. He couldn't help giving the other boy a look of wonder as no one had defended him in his childhood before, yet here was Noctis, someone he'd never exchanged words with, speaking up in his defense. It didn't help him out of trouble, though, because he had injured the bully when the first explosion incinerated his ripped homework while the bully was holding it. The second explosion hadn't really hurt anyone, but he still got in trouble for that too.

They suspended him for two weeks.

But that was okay, because when he came back, he had the courage to speak to Noctis. The boys became friends easily. They were almost like brothers really, and he tried his best to help his friend out when things got to be too much for the Prince. He knew the burden of such high expectations. Knew what kind of weight sat on the young man's shoulders as they grew into teens and in high school he requested to join the Crownsguard, or at least get training so he could maybe stand by Noct's side in the future.

He never told Noct about his heritage as a Niff cast away. He had, however, confided in the slightly older boy that he had memories of another life, he told the other a little about his abilities that were still present in this life. Only a little, such as the magic from their younger years being 'accidental magic' and some of what that magic could do when trained up.

Yeah, he left out a lot of things. He didn't tell him that he could speak to snakes, or that he had two animal forms (one which did NOT exist on this world as far as Prompto knew, as well as a common feline which he would have registered upon his eighteenth birthday had things not gone to hell in a hand-basket), or that he had been someone with the weight of a world on his shoulders as well. He had expressed surprise that his magic didn't react badly to technology here, nor the other way around.

He also never mentioned his first childhood with the Dursleys or the insecurities that still plagued him from that time in his life. Or that he had developed a bit of a major crush on the Prince, pretending to be totally into chicks while taking advantage of their friendship to be able to touch the prince in friendly ways (and smack his ass on the rare occasion, so sue him Noct had a nice ass).

Then the day came that they were in an audience with the King, about to depart to see Noctis safely to Altissia for a wedding with Lady Lunafreya, and Prompto was allowed to come with them! He wasn't able to use most weaponry, had learned shortly into his training over the last years that he was more likely to kill himself with anything more than a dagger, but give him a gun and he excelled. His eyesight was incredible, not needing glasses at all, and with his experience in Quidditch he could pinpoint the best locations to target on any target or enemy for fatal or crippling effect.

They set off in fairly high spirits, not aware of the spiral of despair they were going into or the horror that would take place back at the Citadel. Of course, Prompto blames his blasted Potter Luck for the Regalia dying on them not two miles outside the Insomnia checkpoint into Leide. There was a car, but it passed by them with only an angry sounding honking sound. Had Prompto not been collapsed on the side of the road, well, he might have retaliated in an amusing but kind of pointless manner. Such as shooting off a color-change spell to make the car(save for the hood to keep the owner unaware for a little while) hot pink or something.

"I think we can give up on hitching the way there. Thought people were supposed to be nicer outside the city." Gladio leaned up against the Regalia beside Ignis, who was sitting in the driver seat to turn the wheels and try get in touch with Hammerhead.

"You can only go so far on the kindness of strangers" was Ignis' input.

"Guess we'll just have to push it there ourselves." Gladio moved to Noctis, hand smacking into Noct's back and continuing on to kick Prompto's foot. Much grumbling ensued by the younger members of the group before they got up and into position to push the car again.

"I thought the car was supposed to move us." Prompto contributed his thoughts.

"Wouldn't that be nice?" Noct wryly added.

They continued talking for a bit, while pushing the Regalia, and Prompto was so tempted to just shrink the bloody thing and hoof it there with the guys and no added weight of the car, but Noct was the only one he told about his kind of magic and there was no guarantee that the magic wouldn't do something to the car (more than what had already caused it to die on them). Sure his magic didn't fry the few things he used it around, but he really didn't feel like testing that on the car, not yet at least. Maybe if he could first try it on a car from Leide? Instead of a Crown City beauty like the Regalia.

At Hammerhead, the four were collapsed or resting in each their own way, Prompto all but sprawled beside the Regalia, Noctis on the other side and Ignis and Gladio still standing while resting. A girl came up to them, and Prompto stood up. She had hair blond as his own and green eyes that he thought were more like his mom Lily's than his own had been. She asked which of them was the prince, which prompted Noct to stand.

"Congratulations on your weddin'." She said to Noctis. Prompto hid a wince of pain at that.

"Not hitched yet.." He replied, not sounding too excited or otherwise. She continued on, going on about Lady Lunafreya's groom-to-be here in Hammerhead, while looking over the Regalia. Ignis apologized about them having taken so long and she told them to save their apology for 'Paw Paw', who ended up being her grandfather Cid Sophiar. She then properly introduced herself as Cindy, Cids granddaughter.

After they hauled the Regalia into the garage for Cid to work on, they had some time to kill before they could hit the road again. First they spoke with Cindy, who gave them a map of the area and a suggestion to check out Takka's diner. Noctis headed that way, while Prompto went into the Coernix Station to see what they had.

"Hey, they got Ebony! Ignis'll flip!" He saw what he assumed was the cost but, "Whats a Gil?" Currency? That wasn't what was used in the Crown City. Shrugging, he went out and sprinted to catch up to Noct, who was almost at the diner already. The man, who honestly kind of reminded him of someone from England ( *cough*Kingsley*cough* ), marked on their map a few places that they could gather some fresh produce and some other things and also seemed to have info on something called 'hunts'. There were some posters, with a reward amount listed, and details on what was needed. Some looked simple enough, while others sounded a bit beyond their experience yet.

Noct picked up an easy-looking one and as they were leaving to go take care of it, Ignis told Noct that they had used up the last of their funds on repairs, thus were broke. They went to speak with Cindy, and Noctis asked for a discount.

"Oh, that must be what jii-jii meant when he said he was going to 'teach them boys a lesson about the harshness of the outside world'." Cindy then told them Cid wanted them to take down some pests that had been causing trouble nearby, along with a thousand gil for them to be able to stay in the caravan for the night. She warned them that Daemons would appear at night, so it was best to get to either a settlement with lights to fend off the daemons or a haven if town was too far to travel.

They set off and managed to deal with the first group of pests, which happened to be scorpions. He'd never seen bugs, sorry arachnids, so big before, aside from the Skrewts Hagrid bred that one year and the Acromantulas from second year. So this was definitely not all that fun. On the upside, they didn't seem likely to explode on them. The second group were farther away from Hammerhead and were again easily dispatched. Prompto kind of felt useless to be honest, firing his gun from afar while the others fought close range.

He did manage to shoot and kill a few scorpions that were aiming for Noct's blindside, so yay. Then they got to the third group and his luck kicked in. One of the scorpion-things came up while he was aiming for another near Noct and jabbed him with its stinger to his dominant arm. The pain of it was unexpected and Prompto yelled out, distracting the others, though they were luckily almost done already and not in danger. Then Prompto felt fire in his veins and lifted his other arm.

The spell died on his lips as Noct warped in and killed the scorpion with a well-aimed strike. Another noise left him as the pincer was violently torn from his arm when the bloody thing collapsed.

"Damn that hurts!" He regrettably did whine, would admit that that was a whine. Really though, what were the odds that he'd be jabbed through in the same place twice in two different lives? There was now a bleeding, poisoned most likely, hole going through his arm where at one point in his previous life a Basilisk fang nearly killed him. Luckily enough, it seemed that that experience in second year transferred over the effects of immunity to lesser poisons, for other than feeling a little like his veins were burning he could tell he was fine.

"Thanks for the save man..." Prompto grinned up at Noctis, face a little pale and sort of dizzy. "Think it'll scar, Noct?" He tried to keep his tone light, but there was still a waver to it. Those damned scorpions really were unsettling. Too alike the skrewts for comfort. He'd probably be sick if there was something in this world that was closer to them.

He was drawn from his thoughts when Noct's phone rang, cutting off whatever Noct was about to say to him. Prompto looked up at Noct as he spoke with the person on the other end. After Noct was done, he spoke up.

"So who was that?" Not too many would be calling them, right? When Noctis said it was Cindy with a request that they look for a Hunter by the name of Dave, he jumped up quickly. "Well then lets go!"

"Is your arm alright?" Noct gave him a pointed glance at the still mildly burning and very much still oozing-blood wound. Prompto looked back down at it himself.

"Uh yeah, right... er a potion ought ta fix it?" He wasn't sure if a potion would be able to fully heal it or even half heal it, but it would be enough to boost his own healing spell. When a potion was tossed at him, he didn't even pause before catching the object swiftly. He didn't even look to see what it was before catching it. When it registered in his brain he broke the vial over the injury and watched it begin slowly knitting back together.

As he thought, though, it wouldn't finish healing him on its' own. Prompto figured an episky would be enough and cast the basic healing spell, forgetting for a moment that the other two in the group hadn't actually known about his kind of magic. Once it was down to a still-healing-looking scar, Prompto looked up to see the guys staring at him with varying looks on their faces. "Uh, what? You've seen me heal myself plenty times before guys..." He was beginning to get nervous as the disbelief on Gladio's face was morphing into anger.

"Are you stupid? Catching that without looking to see what it was? What if something was attacking us!?" The roared words had Prompto blinking. So not angry at him? He took a closer look at their faces and saw the concern for him in each their expressions along with different things in each of them. Noct was impressed that he caught something flying at him without even seeming to look, Ignis was impressed that he not only caught it but didn't fumble or drop it, and Gladio was worried at the seeming lack of self preservation. It seemed like that little slip was going to pass unnoticed.

"But I know you guys would block anything dangerous 'cuz you have good instincts for sneak attacks. Plus it came from Ignis' direction." He trusted them to have his back if he weren't paying attention to his surroundings. That brought them up short. That Prompto trusted them so implicitly was kind of major, because they knew, to varying degrees, that he had trust issues. So to hear that he trusted them like that it was rather flattering. Noct knew because he'd told Noctis about it one day when they were hanging out down some back alley near an arcade in Insomnia. Ignis and Gladio figured it out by observing the little things he did around new people and in new areas.

The other three collectively decided to move on from this point and soon the group were headed for the 'shack' that Dave was supposed to be holed up in. Though, in Prompto's humble opinion, that was no shack, it was a full on barn for the size of it. All they found was a note and a poster for a Dualhorn that was rampaging around one of the three valleys nearby. Before they could really discuss anything, a pack of Voretooths showed up and they had to fight for their lives against the vicious mutt-like creatures. Honestly, what was up with this worlds monsters/wildlife? He kind of missed all the non-lethal things from Earth, even most of the magical deadly things.

On second thought, no. The Acromantulas, Dementors, god-forsaken Skrewts, and other such things could very well hang... but the non-deadly/aggressive ones were fine. Heck, even the dragons weren't really all that bad so long as you weren't trying to grab an egg from a nesting mother dragon. No, he wasn't bitter about the Tournament, not at all. Whatever gave you that idea?

Once finished, Gladio noticed, somehow, another more shack-like house further away. They decided to check it out. Another pack of Voretooths was hanging around and Ignis suggested a plan of attack. Noctis warped up to the windmill on the other side of the building and warp-striked one of the beasts which was the signal for the others to attack. They were able to finish them off in short order, with no serious injuries incurred.

-End-

AN: Soooo... long ass chapter. I just wrote and wrote and couldn't figure out where/how to end this...

This might have a lot of longer-than-usual-for-me chapters... for a while anyways...


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Chapter Two was done pretty much right after I finished Chapter One... but don't want to post them in the same day... I'll never do that unless its a one-shot (for obvious reasons), or I have the ENTIRE thing written before posting (not very likely, though usually the first few are done before I'll post a new story). Also, I replayed this part in the game, and found it was actually Sabertusks not Voretooth's. Oops. I won't edit it in Chapter One, but I am changing it here.

Review Replies:

pococo: Well, here you go XP You'll just have to wait and see! Is it sad that I've got more of an idea of where I want this to go at Chapter 9 (of the game) than most of the story in between? Like I know how I want Altissia onwards to go, but not certain of anything before them getting there (I'll figure it out as it goes I guess)  
SleepyMangaHead: Happy to provide. Yeah, I got inspired for this while playing and reading FFXV fic's. Then I was like 'hey, are there any HPxFFXV crossovers? The answer was no, so I figured that I could start this genre/crossover fandom.  
Tziphora: Glad you like it! Here you go, next chapter!

* * *

 _Previously: Once finished, Gladio noticed, somehow, another more shack-like house further away. They decided to check it out. Another pack of Sabertusks was hanging around and Ignis suggested a plan of attack. Noctis warped up to the windmill on the other side of the building and warp-striked one of the beasts which was the signal for the others to attack. They were able to finish them off in short order, with no serious injuries incurred._

* * *

The group turned to the door as it opened. There was an older male, hair cut short and in full-on hunter garb. He had a vest that reminded Prompto of the kind soldiers would wear, able to carry ammunition in those pockets and what-have-you. Prompto kind of tuned out the majority of the conversation, though Noct asking for payment in return for doing a favor for Dave had him grinning.

Dave was asking them to take care of something that he'd been trying to finish off before his injury got in the way and Noctis agreed to it (for a price). That they were willing to go up against a possibly tough opponent earned them at least some respect from the Hunter, and they got another flask for containing the elemental magic that Noct could craft and share amongst the group of four.

"So, these hunters... are they like the new crownsguard?" Prompto had never really heard of hunters and thus had been under the impression that they were like the hunters back on Earth. Though he was doubting that now, since Dave seemed more like a Bounty Hunter than the 'hunting deer or other wildlife for food' hunters he'd been thinking of.

"In a way, but they are a civilian outfitting. They hunt down dangerous beasts, and offer aid for the people outside Insomnia." Ignis as always was a wealth of information and much more bearable with sharing said information than Hermione had been. At the least he never made Prompto feel like he was stupid when sharing his wisdom. Well, not often. Usually only when Prompto was being particularly obtuse about something.

"Uh, then should we be rocking the crownsguard uniform around them?" Y'know, since the Crownsguard were more for guarding just Insomnia and not seemingly concerned with the people outside the Wall.

"It would be far worse not to." Ignis replied.

"They did make them especially for us after all. Be rude not to wear them." Noctis added. Thus Prompto fell silent, not overly minding. He was glad they were at least not so uniform as to look like a uniform. He was able to have his own personal tastes incorporated and was greatly different from Ignis, Gladio, or Noct's own clothes. They also sported some bad-ass looking skull-and-crossbones.

The group decided to set up camp in the nearby haven before going out to track down the bloodhorn that Dave wanted them to take care of. It was getting late, after all, and they needed to be well rested if they were to avoid serious injury. Prompto stayed up late, gazing into the fire and thinking about bringing up a bit of his past to the others, not the recent stuff, but his past-life stuff and abilities. The sooner they were informed of his magic abilities, the better. Hiding it all got to be annoying, and he would likely forget in the heat of battle and that was not the time for springing special abilities on anyone.

"Haaaaaa... How can I open up to them about my magic?" Prompto was speaking quietly, not really aware he was even speaking at all. He trusted them all, more than he'd ever trusted anyone -sans Sirius- before. He just sucked at opening up to others, aside from Noct, but that was partly (mostly, to be honest) due to his feelings for his friend. Prompto ran a hand through blond locks, trying to muster up the courage to tell his friends about his magic and life as Harry Potter (some of it anyway, like the amount he'd told Noct already). He didn't notice the figure coming up behind him from the tent.

"Tell who, what?" That deep rumbly voice... Gladio?! Prompto jumped and spun, blue eyes wide. He over-balanced and would have fallen over were it not for the large guy's hand reaching out to steady him. Prompto put a hand to his chest once his flailing in surprise finished.

"Don't do that, Big Guy! Gonna give me a heart attack!" He huffed, internally panicking. He wondered how much of what he'd said was out loud and how much Gladio heard. When Prompto chanced a glance at the man's face, any misleading fell away from his thoughts. With a sigh, Prompto gestured for the man to sit in the camp chair nearby. Once Gladio had, Prompto ran a hand through his hair again with another sigh.

"Okay, so I already mentioned this to Noct... but uh, I have um.." He paused for a second to think on which part to mention first, past life memories? or past life abilities? "For as long as I can remember, I've had memories of another life, one that ended too soon..." His gaze was on the fire, furiously avoiding looking to Gladio. He didn't want to see the disbelief in the big guy's eyes. "Not only that... but I can do the things that I could in my previous life as well. See... I was on another world, it sounds crazy but its true! And there were two kinds of people, those with magic and those without. I had magic. My parents died when I was a baby, and I was raised by my magic-hating, non-magical Aunt and Uncle. For ten years. Then I got a letter to a school for magic and things started looking up."

He still refused to look at Gladio, and the man was remaining silent while he talked, so he continued on. "The first time the letter arrived, I didn't think to hide it and it was taken from me. They didn't want me learning of this magic, you see, and for days after more and more letters would arrive, Uncle Vernon finally snapped and had us all packed up into the car and took us far out to this little shack on a small island in the middle of a storm. That was on my birthday. That night the door was broken down by a man that makes even you look child-sized." Gladio snorted at that and he grinned. "I know, right? But yeah. Hagrid, he introduced himself as, was a half-Giant. Literally. Said his mom was a Giantess and his dad an average wizard. Anyway, he told me I was a wizard too, that could leave the Dursleys for Hogwarts (I know, the name is horrible, but Wizards suck at naming things).

"Well, I jumped at the chance. I mean, real magic like in the books and games? Hell yeah. It was just a bonus that the school was a boarding one, so no Dursleys for the whole year. So he takes me to London to shop for school supplies and I find out my family (the Dursleys) lied all my life about my parents. They weren't drunks that killed themselves drunk driving, but great people that died protecting me, and they were loaded not wastes of space. The first stop once we entered 'Diagon Alley' -Yeah, see what I mean?- was Gringotts bank. It's run by Goblins, no not like the ones we see here, well they look sorta similar, but Gringotts Goblins are a little friendlier. As in they speak civilly and only attack if you are a thief. Well, the trust vault alone had enough for me to live comfortably for a long while. It was an entirely new experience, shopping for potions ingredients, spellbooks, robes, cauldron and so on.

"They were so cliche too! We walked past a shop selling brooms, of all things, which were apparently used in a sport as well. The last stop was for a wand, and the shopkeeper was a creepy old dude who spoke of my parents' wands. A couple weeks later (I'd convinced Hagrid to let me return to Surrey on my own, then stayed at the inn instead and spent many hours pouring over the new information at my disposal), and it was time to go to the Kings Cross train station for the train to school. They literally called their platform, 9 3/4... and it was actually three quarters between Platforms Nine and Ten. Hidden from 'muggles' by magic of course." Prompto then explained bits of first year, and left out the end-of-year encounter.

When he was silent once more, Prompto sat back in a slumped position. "So... thoughts big guy?" Gladio's continual silence was kind of getting to him. He hadn't yet looked to see what kind of expression the man was making.

"Well... That sounds... too farfetched to be made up. Seriously? flying brooms? pointy hats?" Gladio's voice gave him no indication of what his reaction was, but there was no disgust there, so it could be okay? "Prompto, look at me." His tone was soft, as though speaking to a scared wild animal. He looked up at the man. Kind hazel stared back at him. "That's whats been bothering you? Do you think I'd have negative reaction to you remembering a past life? Please. We're traveling with a Prince that can warp around by throwing his weapons. In a world where even the peaceful-looking creatures will try to kill you if you get too close, and which all have rather effective appendages for goring people."

The man reached out and ruffled his hair, chuckling. "Besides, those abilities of yours could be helpful later on." He then seemed to think on something. "Why didn't you use them on the Regalia when she broke down?" He didn't sound accusatory, just curious. Prompto chuckled a little nervously.

"'Cuz you and Ignis didn't know, and I'm not sure how the Regalia would react to my magic? Magic back _there_ more often than not fried electronics in quite violent ways. I wasn't going to risk further damaging the old girl before I knew how she would handle it. I was thinking to see if Cindy'd lend me a vehicle to try out my magic on... Though without explaining what I wanted the vehicle for." Gladio nodded at that, then grinned his 'I'm going to tease you' grin.

"Oh? Not going to tell Cindy about your magic? Not even to impress her?" Gladio laughed as his face went red, not for the reasons Gladio thought though. He'd reacted to her the way most guys react to a love-at-first-sight encounter, but his reaction had stemmed from "Holy shit she looks like my mom!" Because aside from the blond hair and revealing clothes, Cindy did indeed remind him of Lily Potter. Same green eyes, mostly same face albeit with a more Asian-look to them. He just kind of went with the assumptions the guys had that he had a crush on her.

He did fully intend to visit her once the trip was over, of course, if only to try seeing if there was more than physical similarity between her and his mom (his mom in this life he never knew, so Lily would always be his only mom). Though if there was, that'd be a whole 'nother level of wierd, since she was only a few years older than him. Unless she had similar aging to wizards back in his first world.

"No. Back in school, I had a burst of accidental magic and it resulted in scrutiny of whether or not I was a royal bastard, since it looked like a fire or lightning elemental outburst and such magic was supposed to be only available to Lucian Royalty. When my suspension ended, and I began hanging out with Noct, most people seemed to think that I was either being welcomed into the family, or training as one of Noct's future Crownsguard or Kingsglaive and the issue was forgotten." Gladio remembered that, hearing speculations on whether there was a bastard child of Regis' around or not. Never had he thought too much on it, since neither his dad nor the King seemed too concerned about it, just another rumor that was not true.

Prompto gave a jaw-cracking yawn then and Gladio sent the blond sniper to bed, stating that he needed to sleep if they were to be fighting the Bloodhorn in the morning. Giving a slight chuckle at that, Prompto stood with a 'yessir' and headed for the tent. He was so tired that he missed entirely Ignis standing off to a side and close enough to the fire to have heard the story.

Once Prompto was safely ensconced inside the tent, the Advisor of the Prince went to the seat Prompto had just vacated and sat down. Both older men sat in silence a moment, both thinking over the information revealed to them. Both what he'd said, as well as what he'd not said.

"Young Prompto was abused by those relatives... if he was so willing to leave them for a promise of something better." Ignis spoke up, voice soft so as not to carry to the tent. "He left out a lot of personal information.. but it is clear that his relatives, being magic-hating, were not kind to him."

"Explains the kids lack of trust in others. Can't imagine how that sort of thing might affect someone. He also has a less than stellar relationship with his parents this time around. I know Noct's ranted about their hands-off approach with Prompto many times. They're hardly ever around the kid, and never for very long either." Gladio was also sure to speak softly, voice a pleasant, deep rumble. Both men were curious about what else Prompto was holding back, but with no answers forthcoming unless they asked the blond gunner himself, the two retired for the night into the tent.

* * *

-end-

Ending chapter here, since them going to bed is as good a place to stop as any. Next chapter: Bloodhorn fight and driving the Regalia. Perhaps also lessons in English? Which Noct already knows from Prompto teaching his best bud during their friendship. It's like their own secret language! Which Noct convinces Prompto to let the other two members of their team in on, so they can relay information without anyone else understanding.

Ja ne! Oh, and before I forget, does anyone have idea's for pairings for Ignis and Gladio? (either them together, or with partners from HPverse?) . I mean, whut? more people from HP in Eos? No... (not sounding very convincing)Unless you'd like to see that?

If there were, it would not be immediately... I honestly have no idea how this story will go. I mean I know what I see happening from Alitissia-onward, but from this point to there? Not really other than Prompto's magic helping them not freeze in Callatein or overheat in Ravatogh... and I have something planned when it gets to the Chocobo Outpost as well...


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks for all the support... to be honest I kinda got into playing Diablo III on PS4 recently and haven't done much work on this, despite wanting to have two chapters ready ahead of posting any updates. As it is, I have started work on the next chapter, but only that one. I wanted to have four written and ready and be done or at least mostly done chapter five before I posted this, but it's been more than eight days, and I was wanting to keep a fairly regular updating schedule on this. So, yeah... I will get to work on finishing the next chapter so I can post it before the week is out (I mean less than seven days from posting this chapter, not like in the next day or so since that's a little... too much to expect of me).

* * *

Previously: Both men were curious about what else Prompto was holding back, but with no answers forthcoming unless they asked the blond gunner himself, the two retired for the night into the tent.

* * *

Morning arrived as it usually did, Ignis the first to rise with Gladiolus following shortly after. The two younger men would sleep in a little longer yet. Well, without being prodded awake, Noctis was likely to sleep most of the day away. Prompto, on the other hand was awake not long after the two older, as in just an hour later Prompto was getting up and changing. He stepped out of the tent and greeted the two older males cheerfully. When both responded normally, Prompto internally sighed in relief.

He wasn't sure if Gladio would have told Ignis or not, or whether Gladio would treat him differently now that he'd had time to process the information he'd been given. He was completely unaware that Ignis had overheard him last night. As though they had planned it, Gladio stood and said he'd go wake His Royal Laziness so they'd be able to get going at a decent hour for the hunt Dave asked them to take care of.

Once it was just him and Ignis, the older male turned to him and his words had Prompto freezing.

"I overheard you and Gladio last night." Prompto was winding up for a good freak out when Ignis continued. "I had suspected there was more to you than met the eye, for you always had a certain maturity in your eyes despite your childlike cheerfulness. I must say I wasn't expecting something like remembering a past life, but this changes nothing. You are you, with or without those extra memories." Here he gave him a _look_.

"Noct knows, I assume?" Prompto grinned a little sheepishly and nodded.

"Told him when we were younger... Uh, d'you remember Noct getting in trouble at school that one year, when we were like nine? This bully of a kid stole the homework I was almost done working on and ripped it." Ignis gestured for him to continue when he paused, well able to remember about the incident. "Had it been just that, I'd have been fine. It was easy math, so I could redo it later... but he called me _Freak_... I just.. snapped and caused the homework to blow up. They... the Dursleys, my relatives, called me Freak all the time. It was to the point I thought my name was freak, until I started school and learned my name was Harry Potter.

"It just, my uncle and cousin's images super-imposed over the kid and my magic reacted. Back in the other world, kids with magic would have frequent (or not-so-frequent, depending on the situation around them) accidental magic, usually due to heightened emotions, fear, anger, etc. Like they could make a cookie fly to their hand if they really wanted a cookie, or cause a vase to break, I once teleported to the school roof while desperately running away from my cousin and his friends during a game of 'Harry Hunting'. Well, I told him about it after my two weeks suspension from school was done and I'd spoken to him."

Prompto could hear Gladio practically yelling at Noctis to get up already and a Cheshire grin stretched over his lips. He turned to look at Ignis. "Want to see a good trick?" He was up and going towards the tent before Ignis could reply. Curious, Ignis followed him. "Step aside, big guy. I got a trick that'll wake him." Gladio, seeing the look, smirked slightly and moved back.

"Aguamenti" Prompto held his hand over Noct's head, palm down, and a gush of water he'd made especially chilly cascaded down onto the sleeping Prince's head. Well, Noct shot up with wide eyes quite quickly.

"What the hell was- Prompto!" Noctis' exclamation was cut off as he noticed the blond that was half-bent over with laughter. Prompto straightened and saw the look on his friends face. He let out a noise that would later be called an 'eep' before taking off, a very pissed, dripping wet Prince hot on his heels. "Get back here damnit!" The dark haired male yelled.

"Never!" Prompto called over his shoulder, sounding like he was seconds away from laughing again. The two ran circles around the haven and campsite for a few minutes, before Ignis called them to breakfast. The two collapsed onto the chairs around the now-dead firepit gasping for breath but laughing cheerfully all the same.

Once breakfast was eaten, the dishes cleaned up, and the camping gear once more all packed up, the four set off to the place Dave marked on their map. They kept up a light banter as they trekked, Prompto musing aloud if they would ever sit in the Regalia once more, before falling silent as they neared the location. It was a rather large Dualhorn, only the horns were a blood red color. 'stained by the blood of those it killed.' Was Prompto's rather morbid thought.

Though, when he took a closer look, he saw this faint blackish mist around the horns and mentally cursed. Daemon-taint. For it was a similar 'mist' as could be seen around the imps and other daemons that came out at night. Prompto shivered a little. He really didn't like daemons or their tainted magic. Gladio stepping in front of them with a warning drew his attention outwards.

"Looks pretty tame to me." He replied with fake cheerfulness. Only for the words to be proven wrong when the thing charged at them. Gladio swung his greatsword at the things legs and knocked it over. Just as he and Noct were praising Gladio/celebrating their victory, Ignis rushed in with a warning when the beast stood up again.

The group were soon swinging swords, daggers, and spears at the thing, with Prompto firing shots at it as distraction. He was just beginning to try some of his spells on the thing, when Noct managed to swing at just the right point to sever the beasts horn. The shock of it had the beast pausing long enough that Prompto was able to take aim and fire point blank in the beasts eye, willing a little of his magic into the bullet to make it capable of penetrating further than it otherwise would have. This ended up being the killing blow, for the Bloodhorn collapsed and didn't get up.

"Woohoo, we're alive! Let's celebrate by eating something dead!" Prompto sounded rather out of breath and was mostly joking. He was honestly almost too tired to really care what he ate at this point. Before anyone could add in any other commentary, a ringing sounded from Noct's phone.

"Hello?" He listened for a moment, then bid the person on the other end a goodbye in Noct-speak, which would come across as at least slightly rude to anyone not familiar with Noctis.

"Who was that?" Prompto asked curiously, voice sounding back to his normal chipper level.

"Cindy." Noct replied calmly, as though he hadn't just been speaking to the woman that was repairing their car in what many would say was a rude way. I mean, only three words from Noctis? While there was enough pauses between that Cindy had to have more to say.

He made sounds of protest, enough to further the guys' belief in him having a crush on her, but soon were on the way to pick up the now-repaired Regalia. He was really getting tired of running around in this hot, dusty region, so having the Regalia back would be amazing. Just as he was saying how they should hurry back, so as to not keep Cindy(or the Regalia) waiting, Prompto noticed something huge, and I mean HUMONGOUS, flying towards them.

"What IS that thing?!" Prompto screamed out in a higher register than his usual one. "It's like...bigger than the Horntail from Fourth Year!" He'd bet that that thing outdid pretty much ANY dragon from his old life.

"Impressive, in more than one way.." Noctis added, having heard the story from him a number of years ago now. Once that giant beast was no longer visible, and Prompto offhandedly asked what its purpose for flying at them had been (because it looked to have returned to the same place as where Prompto had seen it flying from), they arrived back at Hammerhead to see the Regalia out in front of the Garage's open door.

"Now that she's good as new, let's all take a picture with her!" Prompto suggested enthusiastically. He handed his camera to Cindy, showing her the controls on it since it was a newer model available only in Insomnia, and the four gathered around the car with various poses. Noct and Prompto in the front kneeling down and Gladio and Ignis behind them to either side. Once the picture was taken, Prompto took back the camera and asked Cindy for a pic of her with the Regalia.

His 'forewardness' seemed to surprise his friends, but he didn't seem to notice the looks sent his way as he readied to take Cindy's pic. The angle he got it from allowed him to get 'Paw-Paw', aka Cid, in the shot as well. "There! Now we got the four of us with the old girl, as well as the wonderful mechanics that fixed her up for us!" He didn't show any kind of reaction to the incredulous looks of his friends.

Cindy drew their attention off Prompto though, since she had another request for them to deliver a package while on the way to Galdin. Since it was on their way, and they owed Cindy and Cid for the repairing of the Regalia, they agreed easily enough. Well, Noct actually agreed, but the others had no issue as it wasn't like they would be forced to go out of their way with it. She admitted to having felt that they would agree and thus putting the item in the trunk for them already.

"You aren't psychic... are you?" Prompto hadn't meant to say that out loud, but there it was. He flushed a little at the looks sent his way. "I mean... uh... " He sputtered and stammered before forcing himself to stop the stupid reactions. He took a few breaths to get his thoughts in order and to control the flustered feelings. He sounded like a love-sick teen! And he wasn't even...! "Well... I guess we're all set? Got a ferry to catch!" His voice barely wavered when he spoke again.

There was a bunch of teasing, but eventually they set off, Noct getting a chance to drive the Regalia. Prompto grinned in the front passenger seat, face turned out to the scenery so as to avoid giving Noct dopey looks. If the two in the back could keep their commentary quiet, he could even fool himself to thinking it was just him and Noct. Noctis chose to head away from the garage in a way that would be the 'long way' as instead of a left when they left, he turned right and they got to see a fair bit more of the region.

Noct turned left onto a side road, one that was unpaved, and the group was soon passing cliff walls that Prompto knew from the map surrounded a valley, one of three in the Leide region, which this road would weave in between. They did drive past the valleys, one of which being the one they'd fought that Bloodhorn in, and were far too soon pulling into Longwythe rest area. Ignis decided that he would now be the designated driver from then on. Noct agreed easily enough, but Prompto knew his buddy liked to be able to drive himself as well.

* * *

End of another chapter! Let me know what you think so far? I've had a few good suggestions so far (well one person has given their suggestions), and I must say it would be interesting to do. If I do have Ginny, Luna, and the Twins reborn as characters (all but decided on who they would be) from FFXV, does anyone want to see Iris or Ravus as someone from HP-verse reborn? (Luna's identity is obvious XP)

Ja Ne.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: So, there were a few really good suggestions, as well as guesses, in the reviews... to them I will just say: You'll find out when we get there XP. So glad people like this! Sorry to say, but I don't think I'll be able to realistically write Gladio and Ignis as a couple, so they will likely end up with a female character at some point, though that would be a side-thing and barely focused on if at all.

-1,819 words [give or take] -

Sorry about the delay in a chapter, as I was distracted by Diablo III for the PS4 that I bought myself. Plus my muse is being difficult in writing out this part...

* * *

When Noctis walked up to the motel check-in and told him they were making a delivery for Hammerhead, the man behind the counter thanked them and told them they (the motel staff) would unload the package for them. Just as Prompto was going to suggest they head across the main road, a bark drew their attention. They turned to see a familiar black dog.

"Umbra!" Noct walked to the now-identified dog and knelt down, petting him before taking the notebook he used to send messages back and forth between Luna and him. He ignored the guys talking and sharing puns as he opened up to the most recent page of the book. 'The time has come for me to leave Tenebrae.' Was her message to him. He pulled out the sticker he'd gotten at Hammerhead for this purpose and stuck it to the next page.

'Just left the crown city.' He wrote back. Noctis shut the book and took a moment before placing it back in the hidden carrier on Umbra's back. "There, all set. Take care out there, and let Luna know we're on the way." Umbra barked and turned around, beginning to run off as Noctis stood.

"I know you'll probably not tell me..." Began his best friend, Prompto, but he cut him off.

"Then don't ask." Prompto continued on as though he hadn't spoken.

"What was that about?" He remained silent and Prompto continued. "You don't say..." In a way that sounded like he'd actually replied. The group went back to the Regalia with Ignis suggesting they head for Galdin now. Just as they were opening the cars' doors, the staff member of the hotel that had taken the delivery from the Regalia stopped them.

"Hey, I found an envelope addressed to Meldacio in the package, would you mind delivering it for me? There's a hunter in town, so it saves us having to find someone to deliver it all that way." They agreed, or rather Noct agreed and they followed him, and soon enough found Dave. He thanked them again for their help the other day, and said he owed them one, then Noct pulled out the envelope.

"Make that two." The cheeky prince spoke. They spoke to Dave, finding out that he was there to look for dog tags belonging to fallen Hunters. He asked if they could help pass along any dog tags they found to him, to which they agreed. They headed to the diner to speak with the tipster there and he marked a spot on their map where the dog tag had been spotted.

"So, we going hunting for dog tags?" Prompto spoke up as they left the diner. They'd have stopped for food, but Ignis reminded them that they were kind of low on funds at the moment. "So we take care of some hunts around here! That'll make us some money right?" Prompto's suggestion was a good one, and they agreed to it so long as they didn't take too long to finish up. First the group went off to find that Dog Tag for Dave. They fought off a pack of Sabertusks when they arrived at the area marked on their map, then split up to search.

It was pure luck that Prompto spotted the gleaming metal, really. He had about given up and was looking for Noct to say that they might be too late to locate it, some creature may have made off with it already, when a light reflected into his eyes. He blinked the spots out of his vision and moved over to the source of the flash. To his surprise there they were, a set of dog tags and a pair of boots. 'Weird... but okay then.' He wondered why only the boots had survived, but shrugged it off and called the guys over.

"Now to bring them to Dave." Noct said, as Prompto stood and handed over the dog tag to his dark-haired friend. They made their way back to town and gave the tags to Dave. He thanked them and soon they were getting into the Regalia again. They had to wait for Prompto, as he'd run to the diner to grab up what hunts they could take on, a few bounties listed were above their apparent skill-level, so they'd need to complete some hunts before being able to tackle them.

"So this one says the target only comes out at night... so that'll have to wait til dark... but this one looks good for a daytime hunt." Prompto was looking through the hunt posters he'd grabbed up.

"We should make for Galdin to catch a ship to Altissia, not stick around here a couple days, even if the money is good." Ignis spoke up from the wheel. Prompto wanted to protest, but a newscast from the radio drew the four's attention. It was about the wedding, and Lady Lunafreya's voice spoke out. She was stating how overjoyed she was about this peace treaty and an end to the war and how happy she was that her marriage would play a key role in this treaty.

Prompto's mood plummeted at the reminder. The broadcast they were listening to went on to explain that while the Oracle's duties would be 'on hold', so to speak, during the time of the ceremony, the marriage would not stop her from performing the duties of her station after. Prompto blinked at that. He then twisted in his seat to his secret-crush-of-a-best-friend and spoke.

"Wait, it's _in_ the treaty?" He had thought that... well... things would change with Noct married to Lady Lunafreya.

"Merely a formality." Ignis' calm voice answered the not-a-question.

"One of the 'symbol of the peace' deals." Was Gladio's input.

"So... its more a marriage of convenience?" Prompto tried not to feel the hope welling up in him at this news, unaware that it was nonetheless picked up on by Ignis' sharp eyes at least (though how he managed it while focusing on the road is a mystery).

"Her Ladyship seems nevertheless amenable to the prospect though." And there went Prompto's rising hope once more, crushed by Iggy's input.

"Noct here seems pretty happy about it too." Gladio added, none of them seeming to notice how much that actually hurt their blond friend. Prompto tried not to wilt where he sat, but really, the constant reminders were killing him. He kind of wished he hadn't come along after all. But the thought of missing this, of being so far away from his best friend, someone that hadn't cared he was able to remember a past life-worth of memories and had the abilities from said life, would be even worse.

He almost wished something would cause the marriage ceremony to not happen, for Noct to return his feelings as more-than-best-friends-and-kind-of-boyfriends. Gods, what he wouldn't give for some good old firewhiskey right now... But if Noct was really that happy about marrying the Oracle, then he'd support his best buddy even if it killed him inside.

Prompto pulled out his phone and loaded up King's Knight to try distract his thoughts from the rather depressing turn they were taking. He'd only do some minor things, his attention not really up for serious gaming at the moment. The scenery was so bland that Prompto didn't even look around at all, there being no point in trying to get pictures of the cliff walls to either side of the road.

He only looked up once the cliffs on one side of the road veered off.

"Hey, I see the sea!" Prompto exclaimed excitedly. He'd never really been to the beach before, in either lifetime, not counting that one stormy night on his eleventh birthday as Harry. He didn't count that as seeing the ocean.

"I see it too." Noctis chimed in without missing a beat. Prompto chuckled. The car was soon turning down and following the winding road leading around and under natural rocky formations before pulling in at the resort's parking lot.

"Uwaaa, so pretty!" Prompto had to physically restrain himself from running around like a little kid on the beach. This place would be **perfect** for taking some pictures! "Oh, guys, look." He'd stumbled upon a persons' luggage case and saw the newspaper about the wedding. 'Of course there's more mention of the wedding. It's like the universe is reminding me that I can't ever have Noct for myself..' Prompto listened half-heartily to the guys' discussion of the feature, quipping every now and again to keep up appearances.

Looking around, Prompto noticed a dock not too far away on the beach, one that looked perfect for fishing. He moved up to Noctis and tapped his shoulder to get his attention.

"Hey Noct, wanna go catch a fish or two before we leave? It'll be awhile before we'll be back here and there probably won't be too many chances to fish for a while." Was he trying to delay the inevitable? Yes. Did he feel bad about it? Not really. He wanted this trip with Noct (and the others, but mostly Noct) to last longer. His suggestion caught Noctis' attention and the dark-haired prince's head whipped around so fast he swore he could hear the air moving.

"Let's go." He knew his best buddy wouldn't say no to going fishing! Now to convince Iggy and Gladio... Neither of whom seemed to be overly enthusiastic about the idea.

"We're here to cast off, not cast a line." Ignis' dry quip had Prompto grinning.

"Ah, but why not do both? We have time." He was about to pull out the puppy eyes when he noticed Noct had already practically warped over to the dock by now. He let out a chuckle. "'Sides, looks like Noct's already there." He gestured to the pier where Noctis was already pulling out his fishing gear. Prompto shook his head and jogged down the steps and over to where Noct was. "Dude, seriously? you keep that stuff in subspace? Is it in the same pocket dimension our weapons go in, or is there one separate space for your fishing stuff?"

Prompto plopped himself down behind Noct, content to watch his friend fishing for a while. He always wondered where Noct kept his fishing supplies. He'd checked the Regalia before. There was the camping gear and Iggy's cooking stuff, but no fishing gear. Noct shrugged and reeled in the line a little bit to entice a fish.

"Makes it easier. Don't need to carry it everywhere." Was the clipped reply, which had Prompto grinning. They sat like that for an hour, before Ignis came over to get them to leave for the boat. Prompto mentally bemoaned the loss of this moment of peace, but stood nonetheless. Noct had, at this point, caught a few fish now.

The group made their way down the long bridge leading to the Mother of Pearl restaurant/resort.

* * *

AN: And I am leaving it here. Next up, encounters with the 'Man of no Consequence' and running errands for a reporter.


	5. Chapter 5

A.N: Review replies:

whrr-trudy: Nope, still Umbra. Hmmmmm, Padfoot could make an appearance at some point maybe... We'll see.

SleepyMangaHead: As always, a nice long review. I'm glad that someone has so much to say about one of my stories. Yeah, thinking of adding some extra Tours of my own and changing up certain aspects of existing ones due to the AU nature of this story. That's actually something I hadn't thought of, but yes, I can see Prompto having some kind of reaction to the Haven Magics... lol. As for the meteor... I do have that part semi-planned out.

Lavonya: Glad you like it. Thank you. Here's the next Shot.

 _previously: The group made their way down the long bridge leading to the Mother of Pearl restaurant/resort._

* * *

As the four arrived in the main area of the restaurant, a purple-haired man spoke up suddenly.

"I'm afraid you're out of luck." The stranger's voice reminded Prompto of Voldemort, honestly, oily and insidious. Or Lucius Malfoy in his 'You-are-inferior-to-me' douche-mode as Prompto liked to call it. Prompto resisted the urge to either hex the man away from Noct, or shrink back and try melding with the floor. "The ships bring you here?"

"Wh-what about them?" Prompto stupidly drew attention by asking. Though his stutter was out of character, it was not commented on as the man spoke once more, seemingly answering.

"Well, they'll not take you forth." The group shared a round of looks.

"And what's your story?" Gladio spoke up this time.

"I'm an impatient traveler, ready to turn ship."The man walked past the four. "This ceasefire's getting us nowhere." He continued in an almost contemplative tone. He half-turned back and flicked something at Noct's face which Gladio caught easily.

"What's this, some kind of souvenir?" He questioned the man.

"Consider it your allowance."

"Oh really? And who's allowing us?" Gladio seemed about to lose his patience with the stranger. Not that Prompto blamed him. This guy set off all his 'bad guy' / 'creep' senses.

"Just a man of no consequence." The man turned back around and left the four confused. They stood there for a moment, trying to understand the man's words, before Prompto spoke up.

"Do you think it's true, what that guy said about the ports being closed?" The group resumed walking into the restaurant while they talked about that encounter.

"I'll admit I'm a bit skeptical, though I won't discount the possibility." Ignis was cool and poised as ever. They stopped to speak to the woman at the restaurant, for information on the area since it never hurt to know that sort of thing, then made their way down the steps and to a very much empty pier.

"What gives? Not a ship in sight!" He tried not sound too happy, really he did, but it was a relief to not see any ships on the horizon. When they were heading back to figure out what to do next, a voice speaking up caught their attention.

"According to my sources, the Empire, giving strict orders not to let any vessels leave the docks of Altissia." The owner of the voice had his hair styled not too dissimilar to Ignis' own, and was in a more silvery-hued shade of blond than Ignis'. "Be a real shame if you were late to your own wedding, eh Prince Noctis?" Geh, this guy was giving him all kinds of bad vibes too, of a different kind than the guy from before.

"Name's Dino by the way. The crown prince of Lucis, bounty hunting in his fancy car. You didn't think it'd go unnoticed - at least not by this reporter?" Prompto tensed at the word 'reporter' and it took every ounce of restraint not to react noticeably. Being friends with Noctis had gotten him kind of used to the idea of them, but past experience with Rita soured his opinion of reporters forevermore.

"Lucky for you this reporter has integrity." Oh, he was still talking? Prompto forced himself to pay attention. "If you wanna remain incognito, I'll respect your wishes. In return for a favor." Yup, Prompto could have seen that one coming a mile away. Reporters... Noct seemed just as enthused as he himself was, but nonetheless asked what Dino wanted. After lending the man their map and having him tell them a little about what he was looking for, rough gemstones for the man (who apparently wanted to be a jeweler for some reason), the group headed back up to the restaurant.

Though, it sounded like helping him with this would get them a ship to Altissia. Prompto kind of wished they wouldn't make it to Altissia any time soon. They returned to the Regalia and headed off to the spot Dino had marked.

"Are you sure this is it?" Noctis sounded doubtful, which Prompto was inclined to second. Who's to say this wasn't a wild goose chase? They gave the map another look and groaned collectively at the wide area that had been circled.

"Split up?" Prompto suggested.

After a bit of discussion, they trekked up the sort-of path to one side of the road and followed it until they came across a behemoth. Well a flying creature that seriously put dragons to shame. Seriously, what was it even called, this thing?

"Oh. Em. Gee! Are we supposed to go past that thing?!" Prompto hiss-whispered a little hysterically. That thing beat out ANY of his previous crazy escapades from Hogwarts for sheer size alone. Seriously, why did the creatures of this world have to be so bloody large?

"Prompto, shut up before you wake it." Gladio's comment got the stink eye from the blond. They crouch/crab-walked around the giant bird( ? battleship? - whatever the thing was called) and spotted what looked like a deposit of gemstones like what Dino had asked them for. . . Right beside that things tail! Prompto barely dared to breathe as he followed behind the two ahead of him (Gladio taking up the rear and Noct in the lead).

"How are we supposed to move this fricken thing without waking Big Bird over there?" The reference went over the guys' heads, but he wasn't expecting them to get it really.

"Got a spell in mind Promp?" Noctis asked half-jokingly. Prompto had a few spells in mind, though not really for what Noct meant. Then he actually thought about it.

"How much of this stuff you think he'll want? All of it?" At first the guys seemed to think he was joking, but then they saw the look on his face and registered the tone of voice which indicated he was being very serious about this.

"Couldn't hurt... I mean... He never specified an amount." Noct sounded uncertain of how to take this side of Prompto. Prompto meanwhile gave a thoughtful hum and a decisive nod of his head.

"Okay, better step back guys, this isn't exactly a precise spell..or very controlled without a proper focus (I miss my wand...)" Prompto mumbled the last part to himself. Once the guys had shifted to being behind him, Prompto held out his hands, feeling like some video game character. "Sectumsempra" The high-power cutting spell cut through the rock like a hot knife through soft butter, and then continued to the tail of the flying thing. Prompto had a moment to think 'Oh Shit.' before the bird-thing woke up.

"Crap!" More than one voice said this. The bird, he was going to call it that for now, let out some kind of roar and took to the air, somehow missing the four that were standing so close by to it. No one really noticed the blond whipping out a camera and snapping a few shots of the bloody thing, all too worried it would attack them. They let out a collective sigh of relief, before three of the four swarmed Prompto to lecture him about the whole thing. Prompto meanwhile started laughing uncontrollably. It sounded kind of hysteric, but really, he'd just done something extremely crazy and survived again.

They packed away the stones and returned to the car, then to Galdin. Prompto felt a grin stretching across his face at Dino's reaction to how much they'd brought him.

"I think you got too much there fellas... How'd'ya expect me to use all of this? I only needed about a fifth of this stuff." Prompto's grin fell, and though he'd protest this comparison, he gained a kicked-Chocobo-chick expression.

"But you never specified! You said 'get this for me' no amount or anything! Surely you'll find some use for it all?" Like more than just bracelets of this stuff, because garnet bangles did one thing but would a necklace of the same help with a different aspect? It could make perfect sense! They helped Dino put away the excess garnets (all in good condition and ready for turning into helpful accessories) and asked him about the getting a ship. When they said they were ready to go, he told them it'd take a day so they'd need to find someplace to sleep.

He then helped them pay (read; paid for them) to stay at the hotel/restaurant. That was ten thousand gil! Well, maybe it was 'cuz of the stones they had gotten him? That night, they were relaxing, Prompto sharing a funny story from his past life and taking some photo's to remember this night since they all expected to be on the way to Altissia and Noct's wedding in the morning.

 _ **-scene change-**_

King Regis making a speech.

People outside the citadel cheering.

A blast shoots up from the top of the Citadel.

Emperor Iedolas smirking and pulling out a weapon.

Fire. Death. Chaos and Fear.

An armored figure standing over the Kings' fallen form.

 ** _-scene change-_**

Noctis woke up to find Ignis not in the room.

"Ah. Morning." Prompto sounded a little sad, and why wouldn't he? His friend and the guy he was kind of madly in love with for the last five or so years was about to be going to his wedding and Prompto would never have a chance to confess to the love of his life.

"Hey... Where's specs?" Gladio answered this time.

"He'll be back any minute." He was proven right about five minutes later, as Ignis came in with a rather long faced expression.

"What? What's that look for?" Ignis was holding a paper, which Gladio took from him. Prompto had moved over and read aloud.

"Insomnia... Falls." The words had ice searing through his veins as his stomach dropped.

"What? Is this some kind of a joke?" Noctis sounded furious, shocked, and so many things.

"I need you to calm down so I can explain." Ignis' voice was calm, but Noctis was having none of it.

"I'm as calm as I'm gonna get." Prompto didn't think Noctis sounded all that calm, but he couldn't blame him. It was taking all his self control not to try aparate back into the city to see for himself. He didn't really have anyone he really cared about back in Insomnia, as his most important people (read: Noct and the guys were his only close friends) were here, but he knew Noct, Ignis and Gladio all had family and friends there, people that they would be very worried about.

"There was an attack. The Imperial Army has taken the Crown City." Ignis was calm, but very obviously upset by this statement. Well, Prompto was good at telling emotions from his days as the freak in his relatives 'normal' home.

"As treaty room tempers flared, blasts lit the night sky. When the smoke about the Citadel had cleared, the King was found... dead." No. No, it couldn't... Prompto's gut sank and he turned concerned eyes to his best friend. Noct looked devastated.

"No, wait. Hold on..." Noct wasn't usually one for words, but he was struggling to find a denial.

"We had no way of knowing.." Ignis. Why weren't they trying to keep Noct from going into shock? He looked about ready to fall over.

"What? Knowing what?"

"That the signing was last night. That Insomnia-" Noctis cut him off.

"But the wedding! Altissia!" Noct wanted to believe that this wasn't true. He wanted things to go back to before. That he'd wake and they would be getting onto a ship and heading for Altissia. Because otherwise... he didn't know if he'd be able to continue on like normal. If his dad was gone...

"I know, that was the plan. Yet the reports of the invasion are all the same. How could every headline in the kingdom be wrong?" Prompto couldn't help a grimace at that, though luckily didn't snort in derision. It was very easy for people in power to falsify news reports. After all, the Ministry had done such after fourth year when they were slandering him all over the daily prophet. All because they didn't want to admit Voldemort was back.

"...Lies." Noct was really trying to deny it, but it clearly wasn't working.

"If only..." Prompto finally spoke up, one of his least rude thoughts.

"What else do we know?" Gladio asked, to which Ignis shook his head. "Then we can't be sure until we see with our own eyes." That was a good point.

"Then that means we go back to Insomnia." Prompto wanted to see if this was true or not, for Noct's sake if nothing else.

"Might not be safe for us there." Ignis' input, while likely didn't change that they had to go check.

"Might not be safe for us here!" Because the Imperials might find them here, if they knew that they were headed for Galdin. Considering the ships not being allowed to leave Altissia, it was a safe bet that the Empire was indeed aware of them being there. Prompto must have been lost in thought there, for soon he was being prodded and told they were going back. Huh, he missed that part.

They got into the Regalia and drove back past the Longwythe rest area, turned right when they got near Hammerhead instead of left to the garage. Their conversation was tense and angry (mostly towards the empire), but soon Dreadnaughts were flying past them and the conversation turned to the Magitek Troopers that were likely being transported in those things. Prompto self-consciously rubbed at the wristband over his barcode.

Ignis slowed the Regalia as they came across an inspection point set up by the Empire. They quickly turned onto a side road which would lead to an overlook which was the closest it looked like they'd be able to get. When they got to a set of stairs, they exited the car and headed down the route, taking out any Imperials they came across. Noct even picked up a cool-looking spear from one of them. Finally, after another couple fights, they reached the overlook and saw smoke rising from above the Wall.

Prompto took out his phone as a broadcast began on it.

"As to ceasefire discussions between the two nations,all provisional terms have been suspended in light of recent developments." 'Recent developments?' You mean the backstabbing empire? "Moreover, in the wake of the news of King Regis's death, we've now received word that Crown Prince Noctis and the Oracle Lady Lunafreya have also been pronounced dead."

The shock of it caused Prompto to drop his phone, because the part about Noct was wrong seeing as he was very much alive. So maybe the King and Lunafreya were also alive still? It could be a ploy by the empire to demoralize Lucis. He knelt down to turn the broadcast back on, but Noct yelled to not bother. He accepted his phone from Ignis, pocketing it while the others had their phones out trying to call people (he knew Gladio was trying to reach his sister).

"Hello, Cor?" Noct's voice caught his attention. "What the hell's going on?" There was a pause as Cor spoke. "Outside the city, with no way back in." Another pause, shorter this time. "'Makes sense'? Are you serious? What about any of this makes sense!? The news just told me I'm dead - along with my father and Luna." Noct scoffed angrily about something Cor said, then quickly turned around to look back at the city. He couldn't hear what was being said on the other end, but clearly it was bad.

"Right." Noct's voice was barely steady with that one word. Prompto was worried that some of the news was true.

"What... did the Marshall have to say?" Ignis asked once Noct lowered his phone.

"Said, he'd be in Hammerhead." Noct's voice sounded off to him. Though it was seemingly not noticed by the other two. Gladio walked up.

"And the King?" Noct's silence and expression said it all. King Regis really was dead. Prompto's heart was breaking for Noct's sake, and he knew that Gladio's dad was likely also gone. He was the Kings Shield, so if the King was dead, Clarus Amicitia would be too. They both lost their fathers in one night. Prompto couldn't imagine losing a parent, having never really had parents and he didn't count the Argentum's as they hadn't been overly parental for him.

They made their way back to the car and drove for Hammerhead, wondering about what it was like in the city and hoping it wasn't as bad as it looked from the outside. The rain that had started up while they were fighting Niff's to get to the overlook didn't let up at all even as they pulled into Hammerhead. Cindy greeted them and told them Cor left to attend to 'business' and left them a message with Cid. They entered the open garage door and spoke to Cid.

He told them that the Empire were after the Crystal and the Kings ring all along. So the ceasefire and peace talks were merely a cover so they'd get into the city to take the Crystal. Somehow he wasn't too surprised, saddened yes, surprised not so much. He'd thought there was something off about it, since they'd been at war for so long and it hadn't seemed like they would want to end the war until they were victorious. Yet Niffleheim offers peace? That would be as likely as Voldemort keeping his word that he'd leave the school alone if Harry gave himself up.

Harry hadn't believed it, so left instructions for the others to follow. If they carried out those instructions, Voldemort would be a goner and they'd be safe. Well, it was no longer Prompto's concern. Most of that world were inconsequential to him anyway, since they were all too easily swayed in their opinions of him. Only a few there did he actually care about and miss. Luna, the Twins, and Neville for sure.

"Cor left a message, said he'd be waitin' for ya in the tombs. They're just a ways past the outpost, find that first." Cid's voice broke through Prompto's thoughts and he realized the others had moved out into the parking lot outside while he was zoned out. He caught up to them in time for Cid to notice the spear Noct had pulled out again to look at a bit more. He said he'd mod it for them if they found the parts.

The thing they needed to find was some metal scraps. Easy enough and the modifications didn't take long to do either. They headed for the outpost afterwards.

* * *

A.N: Going to end it here, since this is as good a place as any. I would have ended it earlier, but it wasn't even 2k words yet and I like to make the chapters for this at least that long. Hence this 3,120 word chapter. Next up: Meeting Monica, Cor, and gaining Royal Arms. Should I have them go to Balouve as well to get that Bow of the Clever? Or should it wait?

I played a new game recently(not new game+, just new game) where I used the Magitek Exosuit to complete the Mines at only about level 5, while still in Chapter One of the game... So I couldn't get into the Royal Tomb after finishing the fight. Did I realize this after the fight? No. I went to the door and tried getting in, then was like 'Wait, shoot I don't have the key!'

Also, no, if anyone is going to ask, Prompto cannot use Alohamora on the dungeon doors (either Royal Tombs or the Menace Dungeons) because we'll pretend they're warded against magical means of unlocking.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Wow, I got my first flame for this story... . a 'Guest' reviewed that the characters were completely 'Out of Characters'... and that it doesn't help that I 'want to homosexualize them all' for my 'gratuitous masturbatory fantasies'. Wow. Just wow. First off, only Noct and Prompto are gay in this (only for each other), second this person didn't even have the balls to use an actual account, reviewing as a guest, third the grammar in this... =_='

All I can say is at least it's better than the one I got for another fic of mine, where a guest reviewer went on a full 'magic is evil and you're a witch/wiccan for writing this!' shpiel... that one was like 'wtf are you even trying to say because that sentence makes no sense!'

And, also, of course they are a little out of character, its an AU for crying out loud! Why do people read things if all they'll do is complain about it? or insult the writer?

-and a second guest reviewer... . also saying mean things. Sheesh, I stated it would be mpreg, and some people get all uppity about it. As if anyone is going to force them to read it. If you don't like yaoi, mpreg, or people expressing themselves through writing, and feel a need to be rude to us that do, then get lost. We don't need people like you bringing everyone else down with your negativity. Luckily for the people that like this story that rude guest reviewers' opinions just slide off me and IDGAF about their opinions if they don't bother putting their username onto their reviews.

-SleepyMangaHead: Huh, I didn't actually think about that... They kind of are a well-spring of magic, protective magic to be specific, so he probably would feel something near them (Havens that is). Also, no, I'm not planning on the Royal Arms to useable as a focus for Prompto's magic. I do already have something planned for that.

previously: The thing they needed to find was some metal scraps. Easy enough and the modifications didn't take long to do either. They headed for the outpost afterwards.

"So this is the place? Looks like a hub for hunters..." It also looked at least a little run-down, but still showed obvious signs of life even discounting the people they could see from here.

"Maybe they'll know where Cor is?" Wouldn't hurt to ask them, after all. They followed Noctis as he made for the largest-looking building. There were a few hunters sitting around a couple tables, but their attention was drawn to a woman that immediately knelt before Noct.

"Your Highness, it is a relief to see you are safe." She stood up and Gladio addressed her.

"Monica! Where're all the others?" So... she was Crownsguard then? Prompto hadn't really met any of the active Crownsguard, even while in training, so he didn't know her. He could tell, though, that Gladio and Ignis did, Noct probably did too. Her expression was enough to answer.

"Most of the Crownsguard didn't make it. It was all we could do to escort Lady Iris out of the city." That was not an unexpected outcome really, Prompto's 'inner-Harry' knew that the scale of the attack would have left many of the fighters dead on both sides. It was worse for Lucis because of the Empire using those magitek soldiers rather than actual people with individual thought and what-have-yous. "Dustin is with her as we speak, seeing her the rest of the way to Lestallum." Another name he was unfamiliar with.

"I owe you guys big time." Gladio was clearly relieved to hear about his sister being with this Dustin guy, so he was clearly one of the few Crownsguard that made it out alive. Monica told them to head for the tombs where the Marshall would be waiting for them. They continued through the other side of the building, where a radio broadcast spoke of Lady Lunafreya. They stopped to listen, and Prompto offered a silent prayer for Lady Lunafreya's well-being.

There were a number of Hunters back here, and they were all conversing in little groups about Cor. They also spotted Dave, who asked them to keep an eye out for another tag that was supposed to be somewhere in the Weaverwilds area. They agreed to check it out, but first they'd see Cor as it would be unwise (and rather rude) to keep the man waiting for them. Along the route they had some bird-like creatures call Daggerquill's to fight. Prompto was never more glad to be a gun-man, as shooting them with a pistol was far easier than trying to hit them with a sword while they were flying around.

Noct of course was warping to them and knocking them down for the other two that couldn't hit aerial targets that easily. Eventually they got the last of them, and Ignis declared that he'd thought up a meal from the birds. Eh, it would probably be like chicken or some other game fowl that was found on earth, maybe pheasant? Honestly, this world had weird names for their creatures.

"Wonder what brought him to the Tombs?" Gladio sounded like he was musing out loud, like he hadn't meant to say it aloud.

"A morbid curiosity for the late kings of Lucis perhaps?" Ignis replied even though a reply probably hadn't been needed. Prompto had his own idea but was loath to share it, since it was based off video games that he and Noct used to play in Insomnia.

"Or there's some special power that Noct needs to level up?" Yeah, he was so calling this situation a video game. I mean, it had all the makings of one of those games he and Noct loved. The main character (Noct), is to go off (and get married) to end a war through marriage, then the other side of the war stabs them in the back and they have to go on some kind of quest or something which would end in them taking back all that the empire stole from them. It almost sounded like the plot of those Final Fantasy games that he'd heard of back as Harry Potter. Dudley had never been allowed the game because of the 'Fantasy' and magical aspects of it.

Prompto finally noticed the looks everyone was giving him. He chuckled nervously. His right arm raised and scratched at the back of his head, a nervous habit developed while he was still Harry. "Nevermind, it's a silly idea.." He sort of shrunk in on himself.

"Prompt... did you seriously compare real life to a video game?" Noct deadpanned and he chuckled again.

"You have to admit, our current situation is just like a video game!" He didn't elaborate and eventually they left it be and continued to the tomb. The 'Gate' before it was rather impressive and Prompto whipped out his camera for a shot of it. "Wow... a tomb fit for royalty." He breathed in awe when the actual tomb came into sight.

"Lets go inside and find the Marshall." The door slid open with nary a sound, that had to be some kind of magic woven into it, not only to prevent theft but to keep it in such good condition for however many years. "Marshall." Ignis greeted the man waiting inside.

Prompto was kind of in awe of the man. Not only did he cut an impressive figure and had a strong presence, he also radiated a power not that dissimilar to the magic he was familiar with from before. It was different, but kind of familiar to it. He couldn't describe it really, foreign yet familiar at the same time.

"At last, Your Highness." Cor addressing Noct got his attention again to focus.

"Yeah. Mind telling me what I'm here for?" Noctis' voice was steady, but Prompto knew how to read Noct and new that this constant pushing forward was wearing at the other.

"The power of Kings, passed down from the old to the new through the binding of souls." Cor didn't seem to be answering, "One such soul lies before you. To claim your forbears' power is your birthright, and duty as King." Prompto blinked. Seriously? He had guessed right? Great...

"My duty as King of what?" Noct bit out. Prompto was not the only one to give worried looks to Noct. He was however the only one to not look away as Noct vented a little from Cor's next words. He really wanted to hug his best friend and whisk him away for a bit to just forget, for even an hour or two, all the crap that was hitting him at once. He knew what it felt like. Sirius' death and being shunted right back to the Dursleys with no one to talk to about how he felt or anything like that, no time to grieve for all that was lost.

Prompto took a half step towards Noct, but was stopped when Noct reached out a hand over the sword and it turned into a crystal sword and shot into Noct. It was blinding and they all kind of looked away from it. When it was safe to look at Noct again, Prompto noticed he had put up his shields again. Cor told them that there was another tomb nearby, which they should go to next. He also told them there were many tombs scattered through out Lucis, though they knew the location of 'only a few'.

"So where's this other tomb you mentioned?" Noct voiced the question Prompto wanted to know the answer to.

"Keycatrich Trench." Ugh, did that mean underground? No please not underground! He'd always disliked being underground or in enclosed spaces. Gringotts had been tolerable because it was kind of like going on a rollercoaster, but still he hated being under ground for any length of time. Probably his animal forms instincts bleeding through. At the gate they found a few Sabertusks which they dealt with easily enough. Prompto made use of his magically-enhanced shots to do extra damage.

Cor gave them a brief history of the area, and they soon encountered Imperial Troops. They got through the first group of imperials only for more to drop down from one of those drop ships. After that it was kind of all a blur for Prompto, as he fell into the mindset he'd had during the war with Voldemort. He still listened to Ignis and Noct when they issued commands, but mostly he was lost in the motions of battle. He even unleashed some spells through his gun, though they weren't very strong nor accurate shots as it wasn't a proper focus.

Finally, they seemed to have taken care of the last of them, and picked up some things here and there. Well, having Cor there was a big help, since he was so much stronger than them. Prompto really wanted to just flop down and rest, but the others were already heading to the location of the trench so he followed after them, not realizing that his slip earlier clued in not only Gladio and Ignis, but Cor as well that he had experience in battle. He didn't know that he'd given off the air of a General, a leader, during that fight; One that followed the recognized chain of command, but a General all the same.

As Harry Potter, he'd been the leader after Dumbledore died, even if he was still barely a legal adult in the Wizarding World, and even if that last year had been spent hunting for the pieces of Voldemort's soul. In the final battle, he'd been their General, despite how often they'd treated him like the Pariah. He was glad to have a new life here, one where he had people that truly wanted him there.

"Take this key," Prompto's head and attention whipped up and caught up to the others, "it unlocks the doors to the other tombs." Huh? He missed something here. "Seek them out and lay claim to the power they hold, you'll need them." Ugh, that sounded ominous. He really hoped they wouldn't, 'cause y'know, that meant the shit really hit the fans.

"And what will you do?" Noct asked as he caught the key Cor had thrown at him. Prompto wanted the answer to that too, if they were being sent off into a cave with a tomb at the end of it (morbid locale much?) on their own.

"Keep an eye on the Niffs. Find out what they're up to." Okay, that was probably a really good idea. "But you should focus on your own task." Wow, such drama. Almost, but not quite, as bad as the Wizards could get about things. They watched Cor leave for a little, then headed on into the cave. Did he mention that he hates caves? Ugh, he was already feeling his old paranoia creeping up on his mind.

"Woah... look there. There's a door. Is this some kind of bomb shelter?" Prompto mused out loud. The others gave their own thoughts, including Ignis mentioning it was probably used by people seeking refuge from the wars. This prompted him to chime in with a reference from Earth. "Wars, what are they good for?" Which none of the guys got, but that was okay, since really what were wars good for?

"Huh, what's this? A cable?" They followed it and found, "a generator? Think it'll still work?" Prompto hoped so, though if not he'd just try and see if his lumos would work without a focus.

"We can try it and see." Ignis suggested, though it was Noct that ended up reaching for and flipping the switch. It made a rumbling noise and soon lights were flicking on.

"Alright, bring on the light!" Prompto didn't really like dark places. Or small spaces either. He also wasn't fond of caves, especially ones that looked about ready to collapse at the drop of a hat. As they were heading down a long corridor, sudden noise had him jumping and ready to hex Gladio when he apologized for kicking a can.

"You are killing me here. Are you trying to give me a heart attack big guy?" He asked rhetorically at at least slightly jokingly. "Seriously though, I almost hexed you dude." He'd long gotten out of the habit of calling anyone 'mate' since it had garnered weird looks when he was younger, even if he'd explained some of the British terms to Noct years ago he was still more inclined to use dude and such now. They continued along, picking up another bangle like the ones they'd seen already, this one made of a carbon-fiber metal of some kind he honestly couldn't hope to identify.

Though the ceiling almost came down on them and he made a small production about reminding them to be careful because he'd really like to not get buried alive thanks, his usual flair and flamboyance playing off the internal freaking out he was doing. Did he mention he didn't like caves of any kind? Noct, leading them again despite Gladio's grumbling about Noct letting him(Gladio) guard him(Noctis), which Noct seemed to totally ignore in favor of exploring this place, pushed open a chain fence door which creaked horribly.

"Ugh, I hate that noise!" Was Prompto instant declaration, to which Gladio asked if it was too 'atmospheric'. He scoffed but then shivered and spun around a little. "I can feel eyes on us." Not to mention the -wrongness- that he was coming to conclude indicated Daemons. It wasn't overwhelming, so hopefully there was nothing here above their skill level at the moment, but he wasn't holding out hope, what with his luck. He was seriously close to a not-so subtle freak out because who knew what was watching them?

They came across two chain fence doors and a solid metal door that were all locked, the two chain-fence doors looking like they led to a lower level, and one path that was mostly caved-in. The passage looked like they could fit through, but for now they remained where they were at. They entered a decently-sized room with a few cement-bags piled to one side and a number of other things which could probably be useful at some point, and tried the only door leading out. It too was locked, so they turned back around to return to the semi-caved-in tunnel, but paused upon hearing an ominous creaking sound. They found one of the 'locked' fence doors wide open.

"It's like they're taunting us.." His uneasy muttering went ignored as the other three headed down the staircase and he yelped a bit before hurrying after them, sure that something would attack if they split up at all. It was kind of disappointing that all they found was one of the potions, called an ether which help to recover magic in this world, which they had to dodge falling boulders to even reach. He had a bit of a time trying to wrap his mind around the limited uses of potions here which simultaneously outdid the healing potions back in the Wizarding World.

They continued along the path only to find stairs leading up to the previous hallway. So they essentially went around in a circle for an ether. This time, however, the door opened easily. His muttering of 'seriously creepy magic-and-daemon shit' went mostly ignored.

"Huh?" Prompto had noticed something. There was something glinting slightly.

"What is it?" The now was heavily implied. He internally scowled(which looked more like a pout).

"That wasn't there before." He showed what he was referring to by going over and picking up a choker-style necklace. Of course that sprung the daemonic 'trap', as the grate of the well or pipe or whatever it was flew up and out poured about four imp-like daemons. His shout of surprise drew the guys' attention and soon they were dealing with them. It was rather easy to do, even with the restrictions of being in an enclosed, dark space.

Gladio had complained more than a couple times about lacking the room to swing a sword around, to which Ignis said it was too bad Gladio hadn't taken up fencing instead. Prompto's ears practically twitched as he heard the faintest sound back beyond the passage they'd just come from leading down. When he mentioned it to the guys, they decided to go check it out. It was the door from before, swinging wide open where before it was seemingly locked. Prompto was seriously getting sick of these daemons. His eye was developing a twitch as well.

It ended up being an empty room with what looked like stone dividers or simply caved-in walls separating them. Junk was piled up on the right, while the left side still had open space. There were no Daemons, and their conversation pointed that out. The back wall had a hole in it which led into a rough cave-like tunnel (as in a not man-made tunnel). They chose to follow it. There was another piece of random junk at the nearest end of the tunnel, which they'd picked up before going down the tunnel.

The path ended at a caved-in section that had an opening which held as they crawled through it, despite Prompto's less-than confident wondering about the structural integrity. There up ahead was another item, he didn't pay much attention to which item, Noct added it to the subspace pocket all their randomly-found junk went into, which was a different one to the food-stuff's pocket dimension, or the healing item pocket dimension. They had pocket dimensions for lots of things actually. There was one for weapons, which Prompto could totally see as looking like a weapons-shop or armory in the set up, with everyones weapons of choice all arranged in specific locations, all sorted and grouped together in their own little sections and all with extra space for whatever new toy they picked up or bought along the way.

They also had one for 'leisure goods' which meant Gladio's camping gear, Ignis' cooking set, Nocts fishing stuff, and whatever else deemed 'leisure goods'. Then there was one for the ores that made color for the Regalia, which they picked up whenever there was some nearby, and decal stickers (of which they had a few including sets that covered the whole car). There was also one for 'key' things, like their extra clothes (though those could possibly use their own space), the world map (which was really only a map of Lucis, since Niffleheim and Accordo were not included in it), and special things they picked up. They'd put the horn off that Bloodhorn which broke off in the fight in there too.

Anyway, his attention was on the door and the item before it. It reeked of 'trap' but again none of them cared and Noct picked it up. It was large and looked really cool. Noct spoke it's name before he put it away in the weapons pocket dimension. It was an Auto Crossbow, which was really all too obvious from the appearance alone. This time the door flew open as the imp-like Daemons charged at them. Again they had little difficulty fighting them, only Gladio needing to worry about swinging a large sword around as Noct was switching between a pair of daggers like Ignis was using, and his Engine Blade the King gifted Noct for his birthday a few years back.

He wondered, at times, how this was his life, where it was a perfectly acceptable gift to give a sixteen-year old a sword, but then he remembered HIS sixteenth as Harry and thought a sword was preferable despite his inability to wield one with any sort of skill. The fight ended almost as fast as it started and the group went through the door. Only to see a familiar room.

"Wait, didn't we already try this room?" Obviously those 'daemons' were having fun at their expense, making them go all around and whatnot.

-end-

AN: So I wanted to have them get all the way through this 'dungeon'/area in this chapter, but it's already so long so... Cliffhanger! I didn't want to make you wait any longer and so cut the chapter off here. Let me know in reviews if you do what I do in Keycatrich to get all the items(following what the guys are doing in this fic), rather than skip to the crawling in the tunnel and squeezing through the passage etc to face the Aracnid-woman and get the weapon. I also like to get all the conversation bits in here as well. Sorry for the wait and thank you to all of you for liking/following/reading this story!

-Wow. 3,300 words, give or take a few...

Chapter 7 will see them out of this dungeon one Royal Arm stronger (couldn't think of another word to use), and taking down the blockade and Loqi.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Sorry again for the delay... =_= figuring out how and what to change is so tough... also, YAY there are now two other stories in this crossover, though I think one is actually just an idea for a story? Or a challenge... . But yeah, that means it's gaining popularity. I think I feel some sort of pride that I was the first one to start this...

Also, I have idea's for a few other stories in this 'genre' in the works too, though not sure when I'll get to posting them... Already started on them, so perhaps in the new year. Who's playing Comrades? I go by Yuki Rogue if anyone is interested... Tell me in reviews what you're name is in it!

 _Previously: He wondered, at times, how this was his life, where it was a perfectly acceptable gift to give a sixteen-year old a sword, but then he remembered HIS sixteenth as Harry and thought a sword was preferable despite his inability to wield one with any sort of skill. The fight ended almost as fast as it started and the group went through the door. Only to see a familiar room._

 _"Wait, didn't we already try this room?" Obviously those 'daemons' were having fun at their expense, making them go all around and whatnot._

* * *

The four proceeded to leave the room, heading for the mostly-caved-in tunnel between the two sets of stairs leading to that lower level area. It looked like that would be the only way forward for them. Prompto shut his eyes while crawling through, mentally chanting reassurances about the small space. It was luckily over quickly and Prompto managed to contain his relief at that part being over reasonably well. As in Iggy or Gladio would have notice except their attention was elsewhere as Noct was heading off already!

"H-hey, wait up Noct!" Prompto ran after his friend, joined immediately by Gladio and Ignis. Of course it was a dead end, another cave in rather, only this was where they were attacked. Mean little things that looked kind of like a twisted version of the Goblins he was more familiar with. On top of that, the lights went out. He'll admit he panicked a little bit. The Goblin-things, which he'd come to learn were actually this worlds Goblins, all looked the same though, and the noises they made had Prompto bemoaning his Animagus-forms heightened hearing which seemed to somewhat boost his own hearing normally. Again, he kind of felt useless, as the buggers ran around fast and were difficult to hit, not to mention he had to avoid shooting his friends.

Ignis was much in the same way with his daggers. 'Hmmm, we need better weapons too...' Prompto had the stray thought, though really they didn't have much choice, in this region, for new weapons. They had what they brought with them, including Noct's upgraded Engine Blade and the masamune Katana which Gladio was currently using, but little else in the way of good weapons. While he was thinking about it, his body was moving practically on auto-pilot again, even if he was unable to unleash the majority of spells once at his disposal.

Prompto fired off a 'Starshell' and it gave them both enough light to see by and distracted/weakened the daemonic Goblins enough to let the sword-wielding members of the group to dispatch the last of them. He couldn't help the celebratory fanfare he hummed out of relief to be done that fight. They also retrieved another item from the far end of the 'room'. It looked like another of those coins, like the 'man of no consequence' gave them. Noctis pocketed it with the other few that they had found so far. He honestly didn't keep track of them.

They turned around and headed past the crawl space they entered this tunnel from and came upon a barricade, which they would need to squeeze through. Prompto internally wailed and spewed profanity at this second encounter with tight/small spaces so soon after the previous one. He watched Noctis go through first, then Ignis, then it was between him and Gladio, but one thing..

"Hey, big guy.. that space looks hella small... should we maybe try find another way?" He grimaced mildly as that sounded too hopeful for the simple casual suggestion he was going for. Gladio clearly noticed for he gave Prompto a look. Prompto just chuckled a little and admitted to having claustrophobia.

"What's taking you two so long?" Noctis' voice prevented anything else from happening and drew Gladio's attention from Prompto and whatever he was about to say.

"We're coming Noct." Gladio followed up by proving that he'd fit just fine and proceeded to go through the small space. "Come on Prompto, it ain't that small if you don't focus on the walls." Prompto sighed and followed the Prince's Shield, eyes closed and doing his best to pretend he couldn't feel the walls pressing in on him.

Thankfully the distance wasn't too bad and Prompto opened his eyes as he stepped past the final small space. 'Wouldn't be so bad if I were a cat...' Prompto thought to himself. Maybe if they encountered another small space that's what he'd to, never mind what the guys might say about a person turning into a small animal. He was mostly worried about the potential teasing about his tiny, furry, fluffy kitten-ness than anything. They'd not had a negative reaction to hearing about McGonagall or Sirius so him being able to do it shouldn't be that much of a surprise.

This time they found a random elixer bottle. Prompto was seriously drawing parallel's to some of the Video Games he'd played in Insomnia as well as Video Games from Earth. Healing items laying around? Yeah, totally like in a video game... Speaking of, there was four of them... just like a game he'd played recently..

"I just realized, this is Totally like Kings Knight!" He said that out loud didn't he? Yup. The guys were looking at him like he'd grown a second head.

"Wha?" Noctis oh so eloquently said.

"There's four of us, just like in the game!" Meh, he was going to continue that train of thought and flow of conversation.

"Then I must be a five star character." Was Noctis' proclamation.

"Hell no," Gladio's voice cut through the protest Prompto was about to make. "If anyone here's a Rare," He did this little huff or chuckle, "It's me."

"Hello guys, I think I beat you all with the kind of magic I can do!" Prompto finally added his own knuts, or two cents, into the conversation. The guys paused at that.

"But you can barely control it right now.." Damn, Noct had to point out the control issues didn't he.

"Well, yeah, but still... Once I figure that out we're golden." While in discussion, the group of four moved along past a door that Prompto then noticed. "Hey wait, let's try in here!" Surprisingly it was open and they found another generator.

The thing was guarded though, apparently, for they had to fight another, lets call them pack, of the goblins before being able to turn on the lights again. The continued to the end of the hallway outside that room and turned left after failing to unlock the door on the right. another door, this one opening easily if creaking the whole while, and found what could have been office space, as there were wooden desks here and barrels and other miscellaneous items.

There was the sound of running water being shut off from what could have passed as a locker room shower area, though looking in the area turned up nothing. It was as they were about to go to the last door in the room that daemonic arachnids attacked them. Prompto will forever deny the shrieking like a girl sound he emitted. It was even easier to deal with than the goblins, and they were on their way again. They found a new weapon, one that looked to be of Nifleheim make, he didn't know HOW he knew that, but he did and he also felt like he could use that well. He said something to that effect and Noct shrugged before handing it to him to subspace in the section his gun[s] usually resided in.

They made it to the end of the hallway, picking up whatever shiny object caught their attention along the way, and soon found themselves in a room that Prompto just knew held a monster more deadly than the previous things they fought. Before he could speak up and warn the guys, though, Noct headed into the main part of the place and the 'Boss'-like Arachnid woman appeared. Eeww. There was a pretty (some might say beautiful but he had not interest in women) woman from the torso up, though she looked kind of sickly and the malice she radiated twisted any beauty into a terrible visage, but from the torso sprang an Acromantula-sized spiders body.

The four began attacking her with all they had, Prompto using Starshell to weaken or distract the thing, and finally took it down after experiencing some shocks. 'Great, giant spider-woman with lightning attacks' The group headed to yet another collapsed section that looked like they could crawl through it and Prompto mentally said 'fuck it' and shifted. He ignored the surprise from the guys and headed through the hole first, not letting them stare too long so as not to let them laugh at him for looking like a kitten in his feline form.

It made things so much less claustrophobia-inducing as a kitten-sized Nekomata (which had been a new development since before he was a regular, if scrawny-looking, black cat. His tail even did that split-at-the-end like Nekomata had supposedly been. See, Nekomata were hunted to extinction in the early 1700's for various reasons, so there were only legends and stories to go on now.

Once through, Prompto shifted back. The transition was not as smooth as it should be, so Prompto made a mental note to practice and change into the feline form more often from now on. Not nearly enough to be noticeable, but enough that he retained the fluidity that he'd once had, which he'd worked hard to gain after being impressed by McGonagall's transformation into a tabby and back in first year.

The guys were coming through the opening now and Prompto moved ahead to get out of their way, subtly probing with magic to see if anything would jump out at them again. Only thing he picked up was an odd sensation kind of like using the subspace to call his guns. He moved towards where the sensation came from only to encounter a door like the one to the tomb where they met with Cor.

"Hey, I found it!" The others came up behind him and Noct moved forward to unlock it with the key Cor gave him. There was a repeat of then they got the first Royal weapon, only the thing was a big axe. They then headed back for the entrance, and nothing attacked them either. It was a welcome reprieve.

When they got close to the outside, Noct's phone rang. It was silent for a time, then Noct spoke up, saying how he was building his arsenal. The conversation continued on the other end, then Noct agreed to something and hung up. He asked what that was about.

"Oh people to see, bases to burn. Let's go see Monica at the outpost."

* * *

[A/N] Sorry that it's so short... Really want to make it longer, but you've waited long enough I think. Chapter 8 will definitely be longer. I also posted the first chapter of 'Stray Bullets' which is a collection of side stories for this one. First up is some Hunts for Gil. Second one is in the works and to be released alongside Chapter 8. Which will hopefully be out with less waiting time for you guys.

Thank you all so much for enjoying this story so far! I hope you continue to like it! (ignoring the guest reviews that spew garbage about how horrible it is for being same sex or including an m-preg element which isn't happening for a long while yet. .


	8. Chapter 8

A.N: So, it took longer than intended to finish this, but it's done finally and Chapter 2 of Stray Bullets is on its way later as well since it's done too... Thank you to everyone that favorited this and followed it so far!

 _ **previously:** When they got close to the outside, Noct's phone rang. It was silent for a time, then Noct spoke up, saying how he was building his arsenal. The conversation continued on the other end, then Noct agreed to something and hung up. He asked what that was about._

 _"Oh people to see, bases to burn. Let's go see Monica at the outpost."_

* * *

When they got back to the outpost, they found Monica on the opposite side of the road going through the small town. She told them of a back way into this base the Empire were building and marked their map with the location. Then she headed off to meet them there while they went to the shop for potions and the like for everyone.

They got into the Regalia and headed to the parking spot on the road that was close to where Monica had marked for them. They made sure to lock the Regalia's doors before heading across the road and past a herd of Anak, being careful not to set them off as the things were truly majestic animals and they didn't want to have to fight them unless there was no choice. Luckily the herd was ignoring them for the most part.

They made their way to where Monica said she'd meet them to tell them the plan of attack.

"From here we will split ways. Prince Noctis will go on ahead with the Marshall, while we will create a diversion." Now, Prompto thought that sounded like a good plan, only... Separating from Noct? He didn't voice his concern; that the groups were oddly-numbered and he wanted to be with Noct! But the Marshall was strong and would surely keep Noct safe? Noct went through the small space (yeah, he was kinda glad to avoid another tight squeeze like that so soon after the Trench) and remaining for turned back to make the way to the gate.

"Alright, let's do this!" Prompto was good at causing a scene or creating a distraction. He let loose with a sonorus-esque shot that did nothing other than make noise. It worked though, and soon it was a free-for-all where you could barely focus on anything else but 'don't-die' and 'take-out-as-many-enemies-as-you-can'. It was kind of fun, really, in the way that all his yearly 'adventures' were in Hogwarts. Terrifying, but also exhilarating at the same time. The kind of excitement that he'd get into street fights back in Lucis for (not very often, mind, just when the monotony of a relatively safe life got to him).

Then the gate was opening and there was Noct and the Marshall, neither looking even all that badly injured. Prompto was sporting a few relatively small scrapes here and there, mainly on his exposed arms, where a Niff gunner managed to graze him or a soldier swiped him with a sword or dagger. He managed to dodge them enough to not be badly injured at least.

"Good to see you again Marshall." Was Ignis' first sentence surprisingly not about Noct. Though that could be because Cor 'The Immortal' was so skilled that Ignis felt secure enough in Noct's safety to not actually worry? Well, Prompto was able to pick out places where Noct's clothes could use some mild repairing charms, which he'd mastered wandless casting of years ago because of not wanting to bother his step parents with needing to buy new clothes too often because of the fights he used to get into. Anything that he couldn't sew back together got a repairo on them and looked good as new.

Before they could head back to the Regalia, or even move from where they regrouped, a voice stopped them.

"Stay right where you are, intruders. " Okay, yeah... Prompto was blaming this situation on his thrice-damned Potter Luck which seemed to follow him even when he was no longer Harry Potter. He didn't pay much attention to the guy's speech, something about Cor and how it was time to blah blah blah, yeah right... But he was certainly paying attention as a mech dropped out of the Imperial Drop ship.

"Ooh, robots! sweet!" Now, did he want to risk revealing his magic to test whether the machine would react in a blowing-up kind of way or not? Probably not a good idea, as technology here seemed to be built immune to magic because of the awareness of magic. The Empire also used 'magitek' which was an unholy mix of the two from what Prompto gathered. Prompto blissfully ignored the deadpan look his exclamation got from his friends and the pointed Look from Cor.

The fight got into full swing before anyone could comment on it though and Prompto decided to deal with the gunners on the sides for now while Cor and the guys dealt with the 'ground troops' and the mech. At times he wished he had two guns, because not only would dual-wielding be so bad-ass, but it would be a lot faster than aiming at a completely different side after shooting one enemy. Because his focus was on taking down whomever tried to shoot one of his friends.

Those ones went down fast, whenever he discovered one trooper or another aiming for his friends' backs. Once those enemies were dealt with, Prompto joined in with the others, firing 'Piercers' at any weak spots such as the joints of the machine. Every now and again one of the guys would perform a combo move with Noct and it wasn't quite seamless, but that was due to them still being fairly new to this level of real-life combat.

He could see that there was the potential to be truly great in their combinations and whatnot once they became more used to fighting together and better aware of their own skills and that of each other. After the fight, which he could tell was not the end of that Loqi guy, Cor had some more words for them, which Prompto mostly missed due to his musing on their fighting capabilities, so he only noticed when the Marshall had turned around and left with Monica following him.

Prompto shrugged and joined the guys as they got their first look at the land beyond Leide. It was very much different than the dust bowl they were leaving behind. Though it was definitely getting late, as the light from the sky was turning that beautiful shade of pinkish red that heralded the sunset. He couldn't resist taking a shot of Noct walking towards the far gate of the blockade/fortress-thing with the lighting of sunset in front of him.

The drive to the gas station/rest stop was filled with chatter about the region and the regions beyond, including mention of a Chocobo farm in Duscae, which he was SO looking forward to seeing.

When they pulled up to the gas pumps and got out, Noct's phone rang. He was curious as to who it could be, seeing as few people actually had the prince's number. His curiosity was sated when Gladio asked the question and was replied with 'Iris'. This led to Gladio grumping about how she could have called him, her brother, with Ignis saying that it wasn't Gladio's obituary all over the radio. Prompto really hated the reminder of that broadcast. He new it wasn't true, since they were WITH Noct when they heard it, but still.

To distract from those depressing thoughts, Prompto plastered on a not-entirely-faked grin as he tapped Noct's shoulder.

"Did you see that sign? Chocobo's man, Chocobo's. Can we go see 'em Noct?" He couldn't do the puppy-dog look, since he was more a cat person, but he gave his equivalent of it. He pouted (though he would forever claim it was a frown rather than a pout) when Gladio reminded them they had to make for Lestallum to meet his sister. "That's still ages away! C'mon, the Chocobo's are so close!" He was minorly obsessed over Chocobo's, they were just so cute!

"Sure, I wouldn't mind seeing them for a little bit." Noctis spoke up just when it seemed like Gladio might argue. Yes! with Noct agreeing they HAD to go! He did a mental celebratory dance while outwardly his joy couldn't be fully contained. "Yes. Gonna be awesome!" cue fist pump. However...

"It will have to wait for morning, regardless, as the nights are rather dangerous still." And Ignis was always the voice of reason. But it was true. They wouldn't make it to the Outpost before night fell, so they rented out a camper for the night, purchasing some things from the Coernix station at the same time.

-end-

A.N. Shorter than I'd really like but... I think this is as good a place to stop the chapter as any... plus that allows for Stray Bullets Chapter 2 to take place between Chapters 8 and 9 of this story... So yeah. Chapter 9 will likely be the whole Chocobo outpost section. And maybe some cuteness with the Chocobo's! And other things which I won't spoil for you! 'Til next time! Ja Ne!


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:**

So, I'm so sorry about another long wait for this update... been playing Royal Pack and also just got MHW and been looking at that... I also took the time to make an outline of what I want to cover in the next chapters after this one, so hopefully that will mean shorter wait time for you guys on the chapters.

Thank you to everyone that is following this or my other stories. No they are not abandoned, just on indefinite Hiatus until I can find the motivation/muse for them... Still planning on adding peoples Comrades characters into this story so let me know your characters' names if you want them to show up at some point in this story!

Pairings that are finalized as happening at some point:

Prompto x Noctis (they're the MAIN pairing so duh, lol)

Ignis x Aranea

Undecided pairings:

Gladio x Yuki (my Comrades character)

Iris x ? (maybe a Kingsglaive/Comrades character?)

Ravus x ? (If I have him survive that is...)

ETC...Now on to the story:

* * *

In the morning, the four got ready silently, though it was clear to the two older members of the group that Noctis was feeling immensely better after whatever he and Prompto had gone to do the night before. They both silently decided not to make a fuss over it so long as it wasn't too frequent of an occurrence. The guys checked out (returning the camper's key to the man at the gas station's counter) and loaded into the Regalia.

"Yes, Chocobo's here we come!" Prompto was so stoked about it. Ignis was driving, so he turned around to face Noct and high-fived his friend, grinning in triumph when Noct only rolled his eyes before obliging him in a high-five. They, meaning he, gushed about chocobo's until Noct told Ignis to pull over a second. Turning around showed Prompto what Noct pulled them over for. There was a guy over there on the side of the road with smoke coming out of the hood.

They climbed out of the car and followed Noct along as he walked up to the guy. They had luckily bought a few repair kits along the way so were able to give one to the guy, who thanked them with way more gil than the kit's cost.

"Well, that went great." Prompto grinned as they returned to the car and got back on track towards the Chocobo post. He was practically vibrating in his seat by the time they pulled in to the post. Or rather, he was vibrating in his seat. Prompto felt rather jittery and more hyper than his usual. He couldn't write it off as mere excitement about Chocobo's though, as this felt more like hyper-sensitivity to some kind of energy.

Prompto looked towards the now-much-closer Meteor as it seemed to be strongest in that direction. "Gonna see the chocobos... can't wait~ "

Practically jumping out of the car when they stopped, Prompto hurried over to the man that looked to be in charge. "Excuse me, but we were wondering about riding chocobo's!" The man, Prompto guessed him to be about mid-fourties, turned to him and what his reply was darn near broke Prompto. No seriously. They almost broke him.

"The Chocobos you say? Well hate to tell ya then, but there's been a ferocious behemoth wandering these parts of late by the name of Deadeye... its too dangerous right now to let the birds leave the post. It's scent makes out birds nervous. To prevent accidents and tragedies, we've no choice but to suspend renting 'em." The following sentence saved him from such a thing though. "Now hold on, aren't you boys the hunters been making a name for yourselves? If you don't mind taking old deadeye down, there'd be a reward in it for you."

Prompto perked up at that. While he was still iffy on whether he was okay taking out wildlife, there's a reason he'd never wanted to hunt in either world and video games were a different thing, something that was that dangerous had to be put down... And well, they'd be able to see the chocobo's if it was gone. He turned his baby blues to Noct and attempted the cutest puppy-dog-eyes look he could make.

"Can we go Noct?" There were multiple reasons to do this, and in his opinion the most important was the chocobo's. Second most important was the people that were in danger with the behemoth on the loose. If he remembered right, then behemoths were dangerous normally, for one to be labeled 'especially ferocious' was definitely worth looking into.

Prompto was unaware of just how effective his look was, though it was more on the 'kicked chocobo chick' level rather than 'sad puppy'. Ignis and Gladio were also, at least a little, affected by what Gladio would come to call his 'bleeding heart', and they also realized the very real threat the behemoth posed to the wildlife and civilians of the region if left alone. Gladio was also excited for the fight that such a beast would present them with. The group came to a unanimous agreement that needed no words. They picked up the Deadeye hunt as well as a couple others that were near by and which they could handle at their current level, being hunter rank 2 by this point.

"So after this hunt, we can see the chocobo's? Lets go already." Normally he'd be less enthusiastic, but this was for the Chocobo's!

"Hold on for a moment, Prompto. We need to purchase some supplies whilst we are here." Prompto groaned but agreed and they made their way over to the shop they'd noticed before. As they were browsing the items, Prompto noticed a little figurine, or a cactuar. He made a face at it.

They'd encountered one of the annoying things back in Leide... It was not a pleasant encounter for him. He didn't want to even remember, however the figurine was kinda cute.

"Hey, can we get that figurine?" Ignoring Gladio's snort of laughter at the sight of a Cactuar figurine. Prompto tried not to flush in embarrassment. Noct looked to what he was pointing at, and smirked at him.

"Oh? I thought you didn't like these 'abominations that would be right at home in Greenhouse Three'?" Prompto promptly lost the battle with the rising heat on his face.

"Duuuude, not cool! The real things are abominations, in figurine form they're kinda cute..." Prompto pouted and looked away from the smirking prince and near-guffawing Gladio. He missed Noctis gesturing to the shopkeeper for the figurine, nor Noctis stashing it to show him later.

They finally finished shopping for enough potions, ethers, and a few antidotes for the Voretooths in the region that could poison them. Not that Prompto really needed to worry about poison in the 'you're gonna die from this poison'. It just made him a little sick (from mildly uncomfortable to looking like he'd come down with a cold for an hour or two). His body was weird when it came to poisons in this world. On the one hand, they didn't affect him like they would anyone else here, but they also weren't something he was completely invulnerable to.

He didn't know why, but at least he could pretend to be a normal human of Eos and not some weirdo or something if anyone was with them during a fight that involved the poisons of this world. Him not reacting at all to poison would be seen as odd at best, suspicious or cause for close scrutiny at worst. The last thing he wanted was to draw the attention of some morally-ambiguous, or unscrupulous, scientist.

They finally managed to actually leave the post, following Wiz's directions to the Nebula Woods, which was where the Deadeye Behemoth was said to most frequent. A noise reached them as they approached the entrance to the area, trees falling over and a behemoth roaring. The noise very nearly had Prompto turning tail, but his saving people thing, which apparently still lived within him, stopped him from it. He took a steadying breath. 'Okay, you can do this! A behemoth can't be worse than a basilisk! This'll be cake compared to second year, not only due to being older and more trained than a 12yr old second year, but because you've got friends that are skilled warriors as well.' He gave himself a pep talk as he followed the guys, somehow able to make quips in their conversation despite not fully focusing on it.

They ran into a few voretooths, which liked to hit them with their tails, moved around really fast, and could poison them with the bristles found along their spine and tail. He was careful not to shoot his friends even if the buggers moved out of the way of his bullets in time. 'Oh, its on...' Prompto called a warning before throwing one of the orbs of magic Noct had handed to him earlier, saying that Prompto was officially the 'mage' of the party after he'd made that Kings' Knight quip, and cheered as the beasts were killed with the ice sphere. Ignis and Gladio looked to have been grazed by the spell, though, as both men were giving him varying looks of 'seriously? that was the warning?'. Noct had warped to the metal tower and avoided the spell completely.

"Show off!" Prompto grinned at Noct as the prince dropped and flipped a little to land safely on his feet. Noctis just smirked at him.

"You just wish you had your teleporting-thing back... Apparation, was it?" Yeah, Prompto would love to be able to Apparate around a fight like this, but doing so was really draining for some reason. It was why he hadn't tried to apparate back to Insomnia, not only the distance but the level of drain wouldn't be ideal in any situation, let alone if Insomnia really had fallen. It was a good thing he hadn't, for the city had in fact been attacked. There was no way to predict what would have happened had he tried it.

They proceeded through the 'woods' until they reached a crawlspace, which Noct was about to enter. A loud growling noise had the prince pausing, though Gladio jumping ahead and signalling to let him take the lead sure helped stop Noctis. Prompto internally cried at yet another crawlspace on their journey, but followed Noct and Gladio with Ignis behind him. It was all going smoothly, until Gladio signaled a halt, and they got their first glimpse of the massive beast they were hunting. It sounded like it was eating, and considering there were packs of Voretooths around this area it wasn't hard to guess what it was eating there.

They managed to make it through, even if they had a close call there, and soon were breathing fresh air.

"Oh, my, GOD... that thing's breath is horrible! Blegh, I feel like I need to soak myself in a scented bath for hours just to get rid of the smell!" Prompto felt need to voice his complaint, noise level as low as humanly possible in case the beast were near by still. Noct seemed to agree, as he and Gladio had pretty much gotten the closest whiff of the beasts breath when it roared at them. The group paused when they reached a fence.

"Exercise due caution." Ignis warned.

"We got the beast in our sights." Gladio. Prompto really wanted to quip about 'captain obvious' there, or say 'no shit Sherlock' but both references were likely to go over their heads. Ignis responding with a plan to follow it to its lair to catch it off guard. They had to be especially careful here, because if they got too close, it'd sense them but if they strayed too far and they would lose sight of it. The path it followed was rather roundabout too, and seemed to go up, down, and back around until finally it jumped up at the end of the area they were in.

There was a tight space they had to squeeze past, which Prompto closed his eyes tightly throughout, but it was almost over finally. The path they followed now had a small fire energy deposit for Noct to draw from, and then they were arriving in what looked like the hollowed out remains of a building of some kind. It wasn't all one large space either, there was a wall they had to follow along before they spied their target. Also along the way they encountered barrels, which smelt kinda like fuel.

"Huh, think those'll help against it?" Prompto suggested, pointing to the nearest barrel while they were still out of sight of the behemoth. Ignis was the only one to do more than glance, and Prompto could practically hear the gears turning in the man's brilliant mind.

"Indeed, I believe they shall. At first opening, send a fire spell at the nearest barrel to the behemoth." Ignis laid out the plan, even as the two other members of the group headed around the corner. Ignis and Prompto followed quickly, catching up just as the Behemoth took notice of them. Ignis went over their quick plan with the other two while Prompto readied a fire ball of the Lucis-variety since his fire spells were otherwise non-existent at the moment. The guys drew the Behemoth close to a barrel and backed off for him to throw it without fear of hurting them.

"Booom!" Prompto yelled as the plan went off perfectly and the explosion did a fairly obvious amount of damage. "Yeah! Go Iggy!" He wished he had Ignis around as Harry to plan things out for him, the school years at Hogwarts might have gone much better with a strategist like Ignis at his side, or even as the voice on his shoulder. Prompto switched out magic for his gun and fired mostly distraction-shots at the beast for the others to take him down.

It was much easier than he'd been expecting. Much easier than the Basilisk... or a Dementor... though that could be because there was no sucking out of every good and happy thought leaving you wallowing in despair. Nevertheless, Prompto hummed a happy little victory fanfare while they looked for a way out, since back was definitely out. Noct found the way out, actually, which required a running-slide. He was all for that, as it meant a short stint in close-quarters and not a tight fit crawling bit.

They then made their way back to the outpost by skirting the southern edge of the woods, closer to the Disc. Prompto felt his gaze being always drawn to the disc, the little hairs at the back of his neck standing up each time he looked at it. He could sense something there, tickling at the edge of his senses but not strongly enough to identify. It felt like two different things, actually, one he couldn't place at all, and the other almost familiar. Like, almost as though he was picking up an energy build up...but there didn't seem to be any bad weather brewing at all. He decided to worry about it later.

* * *

End.

I think 2,300+ words is good... plus it ends nicely with Deadeye dead. Sorry for the delay... again... =_= I'm a horrible person for taking so long.

also, I've got an idea of who I want Gladio with now... are people okay with semi-OC's (my Kingsglaive/Comrades character) as a love interest? I also had an idea of her backstory and possible motivations for her... Hints there at the end... Now I hope to kick off the relationship soon... Do you think it should happen in-game Ch05 (after they recover the Regalia), or before heading to Lestallum(so coming up this next chapter or the one after) ?


	10. Chapter 10

A.N: STARTING WRITING THIS Apr 7th... lets see how long it takes me to write this one...

So people have been fairly evenly split with the Promptis relationship starting. Some say sooner, others say to wait... I think I'll start nudging them closer for now, but hold off on the actual official relationship until later... Or at least hold off on the smut, since stuff is about to go down that really put a damper in intimacy.

This will take a bit more of a Noctis' p.o.v to set the beginning of a relationship, since he isn't really going to show his slow realization of his feelings for his best friend as being more-than-friends territory. There might be a bit of angst, possibly, and agonizing over whether it was wrong of him to feel attracted to his friend (whom he knows doesn't really have a preference towards either)... and stuff.. lol

* * *

Noctis felt his eyes drift towards the cheerful blond of the group, who had sprinted ahead to look at something-or-other that caught his sharp gaze. He was just as surprised as Prompto over just what kind of junk and useful things they were picking up off the ground. Honestly, so many of the healing items they had came from the ground. It was even more amazing just how decent of a condition the items were. Elixirs, which cost a pretty gil, that were completely brand-new looking. Were that many people dying out here? or just dropping things without care? He hoped it was just dropping things and not because of his people dying. That would kind of really suck.

Prompto cheered and was waving around something clearly metal, which drew the others' attention. When they got closer, it was clear the blond found a gun. Noctis could feel an eyebrow twitch. A gun, in perfect condition, abandoned out this far from civilization? Too much like that video game serious Prompto had been crowing about being released the week before they'd headed out. It too had weapons you could find laying about in all sorts of easy-to-reach (and not-so-easy-to-reach) locations. Prompto was running a quick check on the gun, making sure it wasn't defective, before sending it to the pocket space their weapons were stored in.

"Alright, that gun looks like a good one! Better than this one anyway." Prompto had clearly chosen to use the new gun for now, until they could buy a better one any way. It made Noctis think a moment. If there was one weapon he sucked at (and would freely admit, if only to trusted friends), it was his gunmanship. Maybe he should ask for some shooting practice? He knew that Prompto, as Harry, had taught his fellow students when the Ministry was interfering at the Magic School, and that many had survived thanks to that training he'd given them. It had to mean Prompto was a good teacher, right? He'd ask him about it later, no need to give the big guy anything to tease him about, even if Gladio also sucked at shooting.

They finally made it back, only a couple hours after leaving, to see all the protective fencing and Deadeye posters were already gone and the Chocobo's were out and about as well. Even the chocobo chicks were wandering around happily. You could hardly tell that there had been any sort of problems just hours ago. Prompto let out a whistle. "Damn, looks like news travels really fast..." His mutter was barely loud enough to catch it. Gladio's snort showed it wasn't quiet enough, but the big guy said nothing, instead heading over to where Wiz was waiting for them.

"I can't believe... you boys took down Deadeye." The man seemed surprised for some reason, though definitely relieved. "The area's safe now, and its all thanks to you. On behalf of the locals, I give you my heartfelt thanks."

"So about the chocobo's?" Prompto cut in, unknowingly giving off a 'chocobo-chick' look (his version of the puppy dog eyes).

"'Course, our birds are at your disposal." Wiz readily offered, prompting a whoop of joy from the excitable blond. "Ya'll can rent 'em any time you like."

"Woo hoo! Come on Noct, lets go for a ride!" Now, that sentence was clearly innocent in nature, but Noctis couldn't help notice the double meaning that could be taken from that. He ignored it though and followed Prompto to the Chocobo rental stand they'd taken note of earlier. At Prompto's insistence, he paid for a seven-day rental, using some of the reward for taking down the Deadeye Behemoth. With the arrival of their birds, Prompto let out a whoop as he swung up expertly onto the bird's back.

Ignis and Gladio seemed reluctant to do the same, since it was just more wasting of time and Gladio wanted to see that his sister was alright. He knew that the two wanted to get going, so told them it would be just for a bit and then he'd tell Prompto they were going to head for Lestallum.

"Let him be for now... We can head back on the road in an hour. Lestallum and Iris aren't going anywhere." The guys were still looking reluctant, but his attention shifted to Prompto as the blond and chocobo raced back from where ever he'd run off to before and began exclaiming about chocobo races across the road and 'please can we go watch it Not?!' To which Noctis glanced back at his shield and advisor and stated firmly to all three of them. "One race. Then we need to head for Lestallum, okay Prompto?" He didn't mean to, didn't really register it actually, but he'd sounded rather regal just then, almost like a King. He wasn't technically one, as there was no coronation for obvious reasons, but there was still an echo of kingly bearing shining through.

"Woo hoo! Sure Noct! One race... let's GOOO!" And Prompto was racing off again, his chocobo seeming just as excitable as its' rider. Noctis chuckled a bit at the thought, then he swung himself up onto his own chocobo, which had been nudging his head slightly for a few moments now. Gladio and Ignis both sighed at almost the same time and got onto their chocobo's as well, following him as he hurried after Prompto. It was mere moments later that they caught up, as the race track was literally across the road, and found out that they themselves were able to race each other if they wanted.

Noctis didn't have to look to see the expression Prompto was making, like he'd been told the best news in the world or something. Words slipped out before he consciously thought them.

"Want to race?" He didn't try to take the words back, since now that the suggestion was out there, he found himself liking the idea. Again he didn't need to look to be able to picture his friend's face, but this time he tilted his head and sent a playful smirk Prompto's way. The blond looked ecstatic at the idea, since it was not like they hadn't raced each other loads of times before, though usually it was in the form of video games and racing games.

"You bet your royal bottom I do!" Prompto loved any kind of competition, be it video games or a good old fashioned brawl, anything that gave him a boost of adrenaline. Which is really why he didn't really mind all the things that attacked and/or tried to kill them since setting out, regardless of his protests otherwise. "It's on Noct!"

The two friends were soon preparing to race their chocobo's, with Prompto giving his a good head rub and whispering to it to do it's best. Both felt a thrill of excitement at the upcoming race, since it had been too long since they last did something like this. Not since they left Insomnia had they simply took time to play against each other, besides friendly Kings Knight games or other mobile games which didn't count really.

"Alright. Now the track is easy to follow, and blockades have been put up so you can't lose the track. First one to finish the track wins. Ready **[3]**? Steady **[2]** , GO **[1]**!"

They took off, Prompto whooping for joy at racing a chocobo with his friend/crush, and Noctis chuckling quietly. The first part of the track was passed with them neck and neck, but soon Noctis' bird was pulling ahead and Prompto was trying to push his Chocobo faster. He would slowly gain on Noctis, or Noctis would slow down some to let his chocobo recover a bit, then the black-clad Prince would once more pull ahead.

"Come on! We can do this!" Despite their best efforts, though, Prompto crossed the finish line behind Noctis. "Awwwwww... I want a rematch!" Prompto pouted.

"No. Maybe another time. We're going to Lestallum remember?" Noctis wanted to give in to the kicked-chocobo look Prompto AND the Chocobo were giving him, but they had agreed that they'd only stay for one race before heading to meet Iris in Lestallum.

"Fiine..." A dejected Prompto mounted the chocobo and the four made their way to the Regalia, after Noctis collected his prize, which was a medal that he hung from the chocobo's harness. They left their birds with Wiz and piled into the Regalia, soon pulling out onto the road and turning to head back in the direction of the gas station. They drove past it, as the tank was full already, and continued past the slough to their left and Rydelle on their right. There were mountainy plateau's which Prompto could see no monsters or wildlife of any kind on, and a sparse smattering of forest and underbrush.

"Hmmmm... Wonder why no one's made a town up on those things... Looks like they'd be perfect for a town. The wildlife wouldn't be able to get to them, other than flying creatures that is." He mused aloud, drawing Gladio and Noctis' attention.

"And how'd they get up there to build?" Gladio asked him. Prompto blinked and thought a moment.

" First build the highway to get there.. Wouldn't be the first bridge built here." He finally settled on, as this world lacked the magic and wizards he was used to from his last life time. Gladio hummed a short note, neither agreeing nor disagreeing his point. Prompto shrugged and pulled out his camera. He took some shots of the scenery as they drove past, then scrolled though them before clicking off and putting his camera away.

Then he pulled out his phone and loaded up a game of solitaire, since Noct might whine at him if he was playing Kings Knight without him. The rest of the drive was filled with the occasional bit of chatter and the sounds of their music player cycling through songs.

* * *

AN: So... Shorter chapter, but really can't think of anything else to add to this one without going into Lestallum itself. I wanted to get the next part started on in a whole new chapter, so it'll be Chapter 11 in which they arrive in Lestallum. Also, that looks like its decided; Gladio will pair up with my main female Comrades character, Yuki.

She'll also have been from the wizarding world, but not a main or even side character.. also not remembering it but still possessing some of the abilities and affinity for magic as before. Her full name will be Yuki Altius and yes, she is Crowe's sister (she'll remember Crowe and that the Empire killed her sister). For the Altius family I'm having their names be related to birds, Crowe being obvious, Yuki will be a short name referring to the Snowy Owl, their as-of-yet-unnamed Father, he'll be known as Peregrin Altius... This isn't spoiler, just background info. Crowe is also going to be reincarnated from the WW, also with no memory of it but possessing the magical affinity which is why the sisters are chosen to be Kingsglaive in the first place.

LOL, this story has somehow gone on a route I had not foreseen when I started it. Oh well, I like the way it is going! Aranea and Ignis are also confirmed (the pairing works...)

I was thinking Nyx with Luna, but then I had a thought about why Nyx was chosen as a Kingsglaive (after seeing the movie) and why he's so good at the teleport-y thing they can do; He's a wizard that knows or has experienced Apparition, Portkey's, and the Floo. Warp Striking is nothing compared to those XP As for who he is? WEeeeellll... try guessing?

PS: completed at 3:17 am on May 26th. I'm so sorry it took more than a whole month.

PPS: I have two new stories I am also working on, but won't be posting until I have many chapters written for both (and/or am nearly done this one)... First one is One Piece x Naruto with an OC Uchiha female and Naruto getting sent to the world of One Piece on the night Naruto is born (both of them ending up with a half of Kyuubi's chakra due to reasons that will be shown later once I figure that part out...)

and the other is a Harry Potter x One Piece in which Ace is reborn as a Fem!Harry (Aria Potter) whose only goal in life at the time is to return to her old world and the ones she loves there. Established MarcoxAce relationship XP etc...


	11. Chapter 11

A.N: *May 30th. Why is this so hard to write? Argh!... June 8th and still nada... . I know that once I get the first part done the rest will come more easily, but still...Also, I've seen that the amazing Araceil has started a story for this crossover category! It is amazing and you all should read it too! (I'm a fan of Araceil's writing..and am waiting for more chapters on many of their stuff *puppy eyes* please continue your other works as well! heh...anywho...)

Prompto was dozing lightly, the radio playing a gentle melody in the background. Gladio was reading in the back and Noct was staring at his phone screen. Ignis was keeping his eyes on the road dutifully, though his attention was also on the rest of the guys. They'd gone to see the disc, as he'd asked if they could while they were in the area, but had run into a gate on the road to it. They had had to fight a group of magitek's and a magitek armor, but the fight was easy enough with Prompto flinging devastating magic at them.

He had kept to the three types they had easy access to, since he still hadn't managed to learn, or re-learn as it were, to wandlessly cast his kind of magic, but the spells seemed overcharged or something. Prompto later admitted that he'd felt his magic practically buzzing under his skin like bugs or something, and it was harder to control so he didn't accidentally blow them all up. While they were driving away after the fight, Prompto's fidgeting lessened and he seemed relieved when they were farther away.

"Prompto." Ignis' voice had Prompto startling awake and the blond looked to Ignis with a questioning hum. The other two's attention went to them, but he ignored them for now, eyes not leaving the road. "What happened back there?" by which he meant the fight and his magic.

"...I don't know. I mean at camps I can feel my magic tingling a little or something.. But never like that. It was like the difference between standing in a small pond to standing in a fricken lake." Prompto ran a hand through his hair. "It might have been the meteor I felt? That thing is used to power Lestallum and the whole region, right? Well all that energy in one place could explain it."

He thought for a minute. "It's actually kind of similar to the weird feeling I get whenever I go into the Citadel, come to think of it, though less muffled. More wild.." His musing cut off as they drove through a gate and onto a bridge. The land soon dropped away on both sides and to the right was the shore off in the distance, though there was obviously a high enough wall or something that no ocean filled into the gash that was left from the Astral War all those centuries ago.

To the left, the deep rift stretched on far out of sight until nearly at the southern coast. It was so wide and so deep that no one had tried exploring it, at least no one from Lucis. He didn't doubt that Niflheim would have done so with their flying vessels if they believed they might find something that they could use against Lucis. He dreaded what they could find down there from so long ago, even if he knew nothing of what was there. It was just a soul-deep wariness that he couldn't explain.

He pushed his thoughts aside as they reached the other end and saw the large creatures, Arba, roaming freely there. Soon they were driving past and into a tunnel.

"Woah... Its like we're warping to another dimension." Prompto made his voice sound 'spooky' at the end, though the grin ruined any spooky effect he was going for.

"Wonder where we'll end up." Noct chimed in. Prompto looked back at Noct and saw the slightest of grins, genuine though small, on his friends face. He faced forward again before his face to get a dopey, sappy grin on it that might reveal his feelings for Noct. All four were mildly awed at their first look at Lestallum. It was the largest city they'd seen since leaving Insomnia, though still small in comparison. It was also completely unlike Insomnia in that the buildings were so close together and their architecture was more modern than most of Insomnia.

"They've got cable cars!" Prompto wondered if they could get a ride in one of them. Soon they were pulling into the parking spot on the left and got out. Immediately they noticed how hot it was there.

"Damn... why is it so hot?" Prompto whined, pulling off his vest and wiping off sweat from his forehead. He was not used to the heat, which was a more humid kind than the dry desert-like heat of Leide. Noctis voiced his own agreement and Prompto was a little dazed as Noct pulled off his jacket, leaving it in the Regalia. They continued their conversation as they headed up and into Lestallum.

"What, too scared to show your scrawny body?" Was Gladio's taunt in reply to Noct saying he wasn't going to go around shirtless like Gladio did, even if it was hot as all hell here.

"Hey! I've got muscle... you just can't see it..." Noct's defensive tone wasn't overly convincing, but still the topic of conversation had Prompto fighting a furious blush. And a nosebleed. He wiped at his nose as discreetly as possible, glad to notice his gloved hand came away clean. He took in the view of Lestallum as they crossed the street.

"What are the chances of sleeping in a nice room tonight?" Prompto piped up suddenly. He looked to Noct for a second, then to Ignis who was sort-of, technically, in charge of their money to make sure they didn't spend it all on 'frivolous purchases'.

"I am sure we could secure suitable accommodations nearby." They noticed a familiar looking logo on a truck on this side of the street.

"They've got cup noodles outside the city? Alright." Prompto withheld the chuckle that wanted to escape. Gladio was seriously addicted to that stuff. Not that he was one to talk, seeing as the only reason he hadn't lived off that stuff growing up was due to remembering how much he'd suffered, growth-wise, from being denied healthy food growing up with the zoo animals called the Dursleys.

"Yes it might be wise to procure some in case our pantry ran bare." Ignis let Gladio go up and buy a few, as in like twenty meals' worth, of the stuff. They were then across the street and Prompto found himself surprised by the sheer number of people moving about compared to the places they had been since leaving the Crown City.

"Woah, one hell of a crowd." Then a slightly more morbid thought reached him. Just how many of the people there were refugees from Insomnia? They knew that Iris, Gladio's kid sister, had been bound for Lestallum with refugees from the Crown City, so there were at least some. He didn't voice his rather bleak thoughts, and Gladio spoke up before he could anyway.

"She's at the Leville." So the four friends headed in the direction of the hotel, after asking directions since Lestallum was kind of larger than they were used to other than Insomnia.

"Been a lot of tremors lately..." A mans voice spoke up from within the crowd, and they couldn't help but eavesdrop out of curiosity. "Hope the rocks around here haven't been shaken loose." Other such similar topics reached their ears as they arrived in a plaza-like area where a large fountain dominated the center.

On the far side they could see the sign for the luxury hotel, The Leville. They made their way to it, only for Noct to bend over clutching his head just as one of the tremors they'd heard about just minutes ago hit. Prompto could have sworn he heard something, some rumbling voice calling something, but the voice and shaking were gone before he could make sense out of it. He then noticed Noct looked to be in pain and went up to him.

"You okay Noct?" Prompto's voice drew the others' attention.

"Is something wrong?" Was the concerned question from Ignis.

"Yeah, I'm fine. My head just started... throbbing. With the quake. It's fine now." Noct brushed the concern aside seemingly carelessly, and they let him. If he said he was fine, then he probably was. They entered the hotel and stood around in the lobby to wait for Iris. It wasn't a long wait.

"Nii-san!" The guys looked to the stairs to see Iris coming down to meet them. "Look at you guys, holding your own out there." She teased lightly. Prompto internally scoffed, this was nothing compared to his 'Seventh-Year-That-Wasn't' at least all of them were well-equipped to defending themselves and each other unlike three seventeen year olds that hadn't even finished their schooling yet. Instead he said,

"What can I say? You look good." His light-hearted words drew a sad smile.

"All things considered." He tried not to wince at the pain coming from everyone else, who all lost someone in the attack. "You guys are staying here, right?" Iris continued on, looking mostly at Noct, but also to her brother. Prompto tried not to feel jealous every time her eyes lingered on Noct for too long (in his opinion).

"Yeah."

"That's the plan." Gladio and Ignis spoke at almost the same time, reminding Prompto of a set of twins he'd known a lifetime ago. As everyone was looking at Iris, they missed his sad smile. He did rather miss the twins, if only because they could always cheer him up and knew when he needed to be cheered up. They were better at it than his so-called friends, who never pried unless they felt he was hiding something from them and tried pressuring him to spill all his most personal secrets to them.

"When you have time, we have catching up to do." Gladio continued, oblivious to Prompto's dark thoughts. He pushed the thoughts aside to rejoin the conversation. Ignis booked them a room, with two doubles so they'd be sharing beds, and they went up to drop their stuff off and catch up in privacy.

Once in the room, they met with an elderly man named Jared, and his grandson Talcott. The kid was kind of cute, he meant in the 'young and innocent child' way and not like some creeper pedo way! His declaration that Iris was safe with him was adorable. After the two left them to talk, they took up positions around the room. Noct sitting at one of the chairs positioned around the coffee table in their room, Iris in another, Gladio sitting on the bed behind her, Ignis on the other bed, and Prompto leaning against a wall behind and to the side of Noct.

"So Iris..." Noct began, the room quickly growing somber at the incoming discussion. "What was it like in the crown city?" Prompto didn't want to hear it, honestly, he knew it would be horrible. Possibly like one of the worst scenes that was featured in his nightmares from one of Voldemort's worst attacks.

"Not pretty." Iris recounted the attack. "The Citadel took a beating." And of course it would have. That was the stronghold of Lucis, their Crown and where their protective wall came from. To take down that very defense would have painted a large target on it. "But a lot of outlying neighborhoods made it through in one piece." She hastened to assure them.

"The Empire had tactical targets in mind." Ignis' voice was cool, controlled, and Prompto envied him for his ability to remain so calm when hearing about this. Both then and now Prompto wouldn't be able to do so, thus him remaining silent on his own opinions of the attack. He wouldn't have been able to hold back the anger, the feeling of wanting to pound the face in of anyone from Nifleheim that had been involved in the attack on Insomnia.

"You know if there's anything else, you can ask me." Iris suddenly added, with a weird little bowing thing from her seated position. The emphasis she put in seemed to surprise Noct too, for his reply was a bit stuttering. There was a moment where it looked like Iris had something to say, and Noct noticed this. He asked her about it.

"So... about Lady Lunafreya." Prompto's focus shifted fully onto the two seated members of their catching-up session. "I keep hearing she was in town." Prompto felt relieved, but also a little, not-quite, disappointed at the sight of tension leaving Noct that none had really noticed was there with that news. "Apparently she left right away.. but at least it means she's okay." While he was glad to hear it, he also was worried that that meant that Noct was going to be even less likely to ever see him as anything other than a friend.

"That's good to hear. Thanks." Noctis was surprised the sheer level of relief he felt upon hearing that Luna was okay, that she had been in Lestallum. He was also surprised to note that other than relief, he didn't feel too strongly about her. Yes, he still wanted to see her, but it wasn't the same as when they were heading to Galdin so he could go to Altissia and marry her.

Iris bid them good night, and they soon were taking turns showering and getting ready for the night. Ignis and Gladio took one bed, while Prompto and Noctis shared the other. Now, Prompto was both elated and horrified at this. Elated, because he was sharing a bed with Noct, horrified, because he was sharing a bed with Noct. Whom he had a major crush [or rather whom he loved hopelessly] on. If he could avoid any embarrassing bodily reactions that would possibly drive Noct away, then he'd be completely fine and happy.

His solution to this was: turn into a feline. That way, not only would he avoid embarrassing himself due to his body's reactions to Noct's nearness, but Noct could also have more room to himself if he wanted/needed it.

* * *

Owari...finally. Okay so that is another chapter done! Yay. I have started on the next one (though it will take a little while to finish since my muse is mostly focused on HPxOP crossovers more than FFXVxHP right now...) I will try my best to not take three+ weeks like I have so many times already. Also, will post tomorrow/in the morning the next chapter of Stray Bullets as that one is also done. It is essentially a direct continuation of this, though again is not to be included other than as a side note type mention... because it involves a mature content dream...LOL... heh... yeah..

*edited a few spelling errors... and one which wasn't really an error so much as me being Canadian and spelling a word the Canadian way which my American-using computer settings disagrees with. Neighbor' as 'Neighbour' where it's saying the 'ou' is wrong. bleh... whatever. Its now the American spelling.

Later all!


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: So, starting it right away on June 23. Whether or not it is finished quickly is yet to be seen... But I might be on a roll XP Watching FF Pez's playthrough again made me want to do SOMETHING FFXV related (and since you guys are waiting on updates for this story I figured why not?

Thank you to everyone who has been with this since chapter 1, welcome and thank you to everyone that recently favorited or followed this story (I will make a list... some day... . maybe) and thank you to everyone that follows/favorites ME as well. I'm honestly amazed when I get emails saying people added me to their favorite authors list or are now following me. Arigatou gozaimasu!

on with the story:

* * *

Prompto, Gladio and Ignis were standing to the left of the door when Noct and Iris returned, Talcott and his grandfather in front of them. Prompto felt a flare of jealousy when he saw the two together, but pushed it aside for now to address Talcott.

"So Talcott, tell Noct what you told us." He grinned when the boy nodded and agreed, though it faltered a second or two when Jared admonished the boy over his lack of manners. "Woah, no need to respect me. I'm not royalty, or even nobility, just a regular commoner."

"So, there's this legend about a sword. The sword is supposed to be behind a waterfall nearby."

"It may well be one of the lost tombs." Ignis suggested, and Prompto could see where he'd get the idea from. Any legend of a weapon hidden away through out Eos could lead to an of-yet unknown or undiscovered Royal Weapon. Which they were still looking for, since it could only help them in the long run, right?

"We gonna check it out?" Gladio asked.

"For sure. Thanks for the tip Talcott." Noct gave the kid a smile. They bid the three goodbye and headed for the Regalia.

"Waterfall nearby." Prompto mused aloud. "Not much of a clue to go on. There's got to be a few waterfalls near by." Ignis nodded slightly, expression pensive.

"Perhaps not. There is one famous one that is most likely. Callateins Plunge. We should make for Burbost, it is the closest stop." The other three agreed and piled into the Regalia with Ignis at the wheel. Prompto pouted slightly as his request to drive part of the way was met with three instantaneous 'NO'.

The trip was more boring driving, only made better by the fact there wasn't cliff walls on both sides of the Regalia. They saw an old, fortress-looking place up ahead but turned right off the main highway and up into the mountain range. There was a tunnel that they entered to go through the mountain.

Once they exited that, there was a bridge, below which ran a river that looked like it might be good to fish at if they could make the time for it. Noct loved fishing, for whatever reason, and Prompto wanted to let Noct do something fun and relaxing like fishing. Also, his inner feline loved fish and fish-related dishes... so he wasn't going to complain about Noct's love of the activity.

After a left turn from the bridge, they didn't take long to get to the Burbost Souvenir Emporium, as the sign said the place was called. There wasn't much, a Coernix station, a gas pump and a couple campers for people to stay at overnight. It was getting late, but still it was only around four or five of daylight left, and the four were discussing whether or not to stay there for the night or press on and to the waterfall. On the one hand, four thirty was early to call it a night, and yet they didn't know how long they would take if they found anything and might be wise to stop for the night so they were rested up for the morning.

Honestly, Prompto didn't want to go period, since it looked like yet another underground/cave 'dungeon'. But if they had to, then why wait for morning? He doubted that he would be able to sleep knowing what was waiting for them in the morning, so...

"Lets just go now. For all we know there's nothing and we'll be back up here shortly and can rest then. If we do find anything, a late night or two never hurt anyone and we can still rest once we finish here." True, Prompto hated small spaces due to claustrophobia, but he also liked the thrill of adventure. Enough that he could bear with the discomfort of being underground and in a cave.

His opinion seemed to bring the others, mostly Ignis who was suggesting they rest, to a decision.

"Well, if Prompto's up for it, lets go now." Gladio was the main group member saying they should just go now. Noct hadn't really cared either way, though he also felt like they might as well go now and voiced his own agreement.

"Besides, that way, if we do end up staying up overnight, we don't have to pay for the nights' stay." Prompto knew that funds were rather tight at the moment, so mentioning that they'd save money that could be better spent on food or other essentials might convince Ignis to agree.

"Very well. If Noct agrees, then we go there now." Ignis finally relented. "We have enough curatives that we shouldn't have too much trouble inside." So they locked up the Regalia, parked to the side so others could access the pumps if they needed them while the friends were in the caves, and headed for the stairs leading down.

The route to the river kind of reminded Prompto of the Forbidden Forest and Hogwarts grounds, which made him wonder, again, how the war went without him there to fight it for them. Had they won? or had Voldemort been the victor? He kind of wanted to go back there quickly to see, even if he had no intention of staying long. He honestly wasn't even too bothered by not knowing, other than for wanting to know what became of the few friends he had there.

They got to the end of the trail and found a huge, as in larger than his snake form, serpent waiting for them. His Quetzalcoatl form was probably only a little over half the size of that thing, but still, he could understand it all the same. It was going on about prey with soft shells and he looked over to see large crabs further along the path to the waterfall.

"Wait. We are not here to fight!" The hisses drew his friends attention, as well as the large snake. It brought its' head down and he could hear the jingling noise that signified the summoning of someones weapons. He held his hand out behind him to stop them from attacking.

"You... sspeak? You sspeak to me?" There was a note of in-credulousness to the snake-things voice. Prompto stood his ground and even managed a smirk.

"Yess. I am sspeaking to you. Will you allow uss to passs?" He hope so, since this snake was so large they'd have a hard time fighting it. Especially if it was able to move more agilely than its size would have you assume. It seemed to contemplate this.

"Very well... If you will crussh thosse hard-sshell eight legss for me." He agreed to the request, since they would likely have to fight the giant crabs to proceed anyway He told the guys that they could go past the snake but would need to 'crush the crabs' for the Midgardsormr. Gladio looked okay with that, if the slightly predatory grin were anything to go by.

The Midgardsormr watched the four friends leave to where they could see four giant crabs moving about. Without a word, they were moving, Noct warping to the farthest one and Ignis and Gladio pairing up to take on another. Prompto began firing at the last one, bullets enhanced with some magic to do more damage.

They left the corpses of the crustaceans for the Midgardsormr, who had come up while they were finishing off the last one, and proceeded towards the waterfall.

"So, the legend says to 'look behind the waterfall..." Prompto practically chirped the sentence.

"What does the waterfall say?" Ignis played along with an almost, not quite but close as ever to, playful tone to his voice. Still sounding bloody proper and whatnot. Hah, Prompto _could_ do the proper way of speech if he felt like, he was British originally after all, but he was fine letting Iggy have that be his thing. That and the cooking (though he helped of course, since it was only fair). And driving, though he'd offered, the guys had flat out refused to let him behind the wheel after that one incident where he swerved off the road because of a puppy.

"I think it says 'come in'." He responded playfully, though he was feeling just _ever so slightly_ apprehensive. It was looking like they would be going into yet **ANOTHER** cave. Really, great. Why was his luck so bad? Why another cave? His fear was proven correct, for when they passed the waterfall, what awaited them was a cave's entrance. Prompto eyed the opening into the earth distastefully.

"Can I stay out here?" He spoke in a monotone that was so rare for his usual vibrant nature. It drew their attention. Noct gave an apologetic grimace meant to be a reassuring grin.

"Sorry Prom, but no, we need you in there with us." He sighed and slumped even more.

"Yeah, I figured as much..." Was his mumbled reply. Gladio came up and clapped a large hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry about it. Caves aren't that bad..." Prompto's deadpan was truly impressive. "Usually..." The mountain of a man tacked on.

"With OUR luck? We'll be lucky there aren't any really tough monsters, just a lot of annoying but easy ones. Knowing my luck it'll be a horde of tough monsters waiting." Prompto bemoaned dramatically as he started to follow the guys. They all mostly ignored his theatrics though his prediction was all too likely.

The four had experienced Prompto's weird luck a number of times already. Things could easily go really well, or they could suddenly get shot to hell in a hand-basket (which they somehow survived intact). "Well, on the bright side... maybe the cold keeps the daemons at bay?" He doubted it, really, since they had seen ice bomb daemons...

"Yeah, 'cuz monsters like warmth." Gladio had to ruin it, didn't he?

"Ah. Sarcasm." Then they had to fight some blob monsters called flans and Prompto groaned.

"And here's our warm welcome..." The fight wasn't too hard, really, just annoying because it was hard to cut or shoot amorphous blobs of goo. Luckily for them it looked like Flans were weak to magic, or at least not resistant to it, and Prompto used the three element spells that he could use currently. Finally they beat them and found their next challenge; a slippery slope into the darkness.

Their shoes were NOT built for that kind of thing. So, reminded of both the Chamber entrance from second year and the trapdoor from first, Prompto ran at the 'slide' and hopped on, calling up to them as he did.

"Might as well get down the fast way!" which had the others shrugging, or sighing, and following him.

At the bottom were about a half a dozen or so imp-like daemons, so they drew their weapons and engaged in battle. Prompto took advantage of their momentum to leap up into the air and fire some magic-infused bullets at the nearest enemy. He'd be able to take them out, possibly, in his serpent form but for the fact that it was COLD and his serpent form was very much cold blooded. Meaning he'd knock himself out completely and go into hibernation or whatever that state was called when snakes get cold.

So snake form was NOT an option. The group made fairly quick work of the enemy daemons, showing the fruits of their training up to this point. Prompto was having an easier time of ignoring the whole 'underground/cave' setting by focusing on the fighting, but once it was over he was reminded that they were once again underground. And it was cold. He was glad that at least a warming charm was working, casting it on the group (especially the shirtless Gladio... seriously, how is Gladio NOT frozen by this point?).

"I wish I could transfigure some winter jackets though... That'd work so much better.." Prompto whined in reply to the thanks from the guys for his heating charm. He got some looks for that. "What? Winter clothes would work SO much better! Unfortunately they require too much precision for wandless magic to do any good." He wouldn't stop complaining about the lack of a proper focus until he found one.

"No, it's more... what the hell do you mean 'transfigure'?" Prompto blinked.

"Oh, Transfiguration, that is the discipline of turning one thing into another through specific wand movements and the properly pronounced incantation. Getting the pronunciation wrong can have varied funny, or horrible, results. Charms allows you to enchant things, such as these nifty heating charms, or cooling charms, or the levitation spell. There's other branches of magic, but Potions requires specific plants and animal parts found only on Earth, History of Magic is useless here (or even on Earth since the teacher only goes on about one subject, Goblin Rebellions).

"Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Defense Against the Dark Arts are the only other really useful subjects. Divination only works if you have the inborn talent for it, and Herbology deals with magical Earth plants, and Care of Magical Creatures is the same in being on Magical Creatures of Earth." Prompto was getting a little off topic, but the others let him, since it took their minds (and his actually) off their current location.

Soon they came to yet another slope that looked very slippery. This time though, Prompto put sticking charms onto their feet because this slope looked very much like it let to a steeper fall than before. Well, the other slope could have ended in a steep drop as well, but the others didn't need to know that.

"Couldn't have done this before?" Gladio asked once they had all made sure the sticking charms had stuck. Prompto chuckled nervously.

"I forgot?" This got him exasperated sighing or looks from the three. Soon though they were heading down carefully, the sticking charms done so as to let them pick their feet up and walk only slightly hindered instead of full-on sticking them in one place. They all chose to get up onto a ledge that turned out to not be too slippery, thus letting Prompto drop the sticking charms. "Whoo, that's tiring to keep up..." Prompto huffed out softly.

No one commented, though all three caught his words and were curious about what he meant. The path they were on led them to a crawl space, which Noct went through first despite Gladio's desire to precede them. Gladio huffed and followed.

"Hah, your tips just got frosted dude!" Prompto cheerfully crowed upon following the big guy through, Ignis bringing up the rear. He was trying not to focus too much on 'small crawl space, small crawl space!' panic. His gaze on Noct, or rather the prince's hair, showed which of them he was addressing. And sure enough, there was frost tipping the spikes of Noctis' hair.

"Really?" Noct groaned, brushing his gloved hand through the spiky black hair and dislodging the frost. Their banter, continued along their traversal of the glacier caves, was interrupted by yet more flan creatures, followed by yet more things. The string of enemies all blended together after a while. The passages all looked the same too, so after the umpteenth wrong turn had them running into a dead-end and/or a horde of imps or other daemons, Ignis chose to broach the subject.

"Noct, if I may..."

"Don't ask." He was clearly annoyed, or embarrassed, about this string of wrong turns.

"Yup, we're lost." Prompto chimed in before Gladio, who had opened his mouth, could say it. He was focusing on teasing his pal for his lack of a sense of direction to avoid thinking about how they were underground and lost. It kept his panic at bay.

"Don't answer!" Noct growled out as they headed back to take a different route. After some more turns, and more fights, they finally got to a place that looked promising.

"Eeny-Meeny Miny-moe..." Prompto started with.

"We're catching cold..." Noctis.

"So here we go." Prompto finished with. Noctis began edging along a small ledge, and the guys followed one after the other. "What I wouldn't give for some hot soup... or tea... Mmmmm, soup.." Prompto mused out loud.

"We gotta be almost there, right? Right?" They made it to the other side without slipping, and found an entrance into an open space.

"Knock knock..." Gladio jokingly stated as they saw a door that looked very much like the one Cor had shown them in Leide.

"We're here." Ignis finished Gladio's joke for him. Of course it was then that their luck took a turn for the worse, as imps and a mindflayer appeared. Both these things could cause status effects, such as confusion and poison, so they had to keep a careful eye and make use of the curatives they had for those status effects.

Prompto called for the guys to clear out, having a ball of volatile magic in hand that had been made by combining all three elements with a few items to make them hit four times (Quadcast). The guys luckily managed to get out of the blast range by the time Prompto threw it and it went off like a grenade.

The blast was such that even the new monsters (more imps, some flan, and two mindflayers this time) were insta-killed, or nearly so. Prompto and Noctis utilized their long-range skills with guns to pick off the stragglers. By the time the fight ended, the magic had dissipated so they could safely walk to the door.

"Does this mean we can go back outside?!" Prompto shouted in elation.

"Once we get this Arm we can." Noct pointed out with a grin, striding to the door leading to said Arm. Prompto practically bounced up to Noct.

"Of course. Be pointless to leave it here now that we've gotten this far." He slung an arm around Noct's shoulder as the door slid open. Noct shrugged him off to enter the chamber. Prompto pouted minutely before shivering as he followed his friend. "Those statues still give me the creeps..." He mused aloud, violet blues glancing around at said statues. Heck, this whole chamber gave him the creeps.

Though that could be from the energy he felt which pulsed softly and swelled as Noct held his hand out over the Royal Arm. It turned into the glowing semi-intangible crystal as the other ones did, floated up, then shot into Noct to join the others spinning around him irregardless of obstacles.

* * *

AN: So, ending this at 3,091 words... hope the length makes up for the wait? I could continue this chapter up to them heading back to Lestallum, but I figured this was a good stopping point. Next chapter will be started right away, though, so here's hoping i can keep up a good typing momentum.

I recently bought Tales of Berseria(it was on sale), and had been watching FF Pez playing it, so been kind of obsessed with that lately. I even have started writing up a fic for a Tales x HP fic... Done Ch1 already even... not to mention I'm working on another FFXVxHP story in which I got inspiration from MWolfes 'Kings, Prophecy's, and Destiny'... Only in mine its a fem!Harry... finished (and posted): 08-16-2018 Started: 06-23-2018.

I'm really sorry... I still get lots of people favoriting or following... thank you all... You rock.


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: 08-16-2018 Started same day as I finished Ch12... Again no promises of a speedy completion on this... Also, anyone else (that writes/posts stories here) find it odd or even annoying that you get emailed for chapters YOU YOURSELF posted? I keep getting email notifications for when I post a chapter. WHY?

-Now then... on to the story!

As they were leaving, Noct nearly fell over with a pained groan. It was another headache, and it was a bad one. Prompto felt a throbbing in his own head, and words that hovered just out of reach of comprehension. Unknown to him, and unnoticed by the guys, but his eyes were suddenly a brilliant, albeit creepy, emerald just like Noct's eyes were purple/pink-tinted.

Still, he was at his friend's side immediately to catch him and support him while he was tipping over in pain. His own mild headache (he still had a high pain tolerance despite acting like a wimp or a baby so much) was nothing compared to his friends. Maybe it was just a sympathy headache? Either way, it passed just as quickly as Noct's own it seemed. Noct began to straighten up.

"What did I... Where was that?" His words drew everyone's attention even more to him.

"What is it?" Gladio, from behind Prompto, spoke up.

"A.. hole in the ground... something burning? The Meteor?" He was speaking in disjointed sentences, clearly not fully recovered from this latest headache.

"You saw the Disc of Cauthess?" Ignis questioned disbelievingly. Noct nodded and stood up more fully. Prompto backed off a little.

"First, lets get out of here... Then we can plan what to do next, right Iggy?" Prompto suggested. The guys agreed and they continued out, jumping down before they reached the narrow ledge so as to get a short-cut back to the route they'd found before. It had a crawl-space on the first side that could lead them back to the entrance.

His worry about Noct's recurring headaches and their possible cause were enough to numb or completely distract him from the small spaces claustrophobia-induced panic that he would have felt otherwise. Their way past the crawl-space was blocked by yet another yakusha-type daemon and some imps but those were dealt with quickly. The route split left and right, but the group went left, having noticed two openings along their entrance to the caves.

The left option proved right, for they found themselves just above the first chamber before the slope which they hopped down and proceeded to exit out to behind the waterfall once more. The sun was just rising to the east, so they knew they had been there all night.

"Smell the fresh air! Haah, makes you feel alive!" Prompto stretched his arms over his head, tilting his head to hear a satisfying 'pop', and stretched. His shoulders and arms both made satisfying 'crack'/'pop'-ing noises and he let out a yawn. "Good morning fellas..." He tacked on.

"Sun's come up?" Gladio sighed and ran a hand down his face. Luckily, none of them were completely unused to pulling all-nighters. The Midgardsormr had clearly finished eating its' fill and was now sunning itself, thus letting them pass back to the path leading into the outpost.

"Time to go report our success to Talcott!" Prompto chirped, far too chipper for the morning hours. Noct just kind of grunted agreement, looking ready to drop any second. He'd likely nap the whole ride back to Lestallum. And just as Prompto thought, not long after they had settled into the Regalia and Ignis had pulled out of the parking lot, Noct was snoozing away.

At least, it looked like he was. In point of fact, Noctis was thinking about what had happened down in the caves. Prompto had gotten separated from them, the worry for him was overridden with the swarm of Daemons, but it was still there, distracting him from what should have been an easy fight. The level and intensity of the worry had been surprising, for it went above the level of concern for a friend.

His dream from the night in Lestallum rose to the forefront of his mind and he was never more thankful that he wasn't prone to blushing in embarrassment. The dream had felt incredible, really, to have Prompto so close, to see him so exposed and his lips bruised from Noct's actions was thrilling in a way he hadn't expected it to be. He thought there should be some level of revulsion at himself for thinking such things about and for his friend, but there was none. In fact, he felt rather possessive and proud of how he'd been well on his way to making the blond go wild with desire.

He shifted slightly in his seat, lips pulling down in an instinctual frown as snippets of the dream swam through his minds' eye. He really shouldn't be thinking about that right now, with the guys all in the car. He pulled his mind back on track.

When Prompto showed up with a loud 'pop' or really a cracking sound, which was like a mix of gunfire and a car backfiring, he showed a level of control over the spell he was wielding that was honestly surprising, considering his bemoaning a lack of 'focus'. The enemies were swiftly dealt with after Prompto's return to the group, and they then were able to exit the caverns without further mishaps.

Noctis' thoughts were cut off as Ignis stopped the Regalia abruptly. He sat up and was about to ask what was up, when he noticed a Niff drop ship above them and the troops that had just descended on the road before them. He groaned as the group left the car, summoning their weapons.

Noct threw his Engine Blade at the first Magitek Soldier and warped to it just as it hit, sending it further into the robot with his body weight. Prompto's gun was firing bullet after bullet at the ones to one side, while Gladio and Ignis dealt with more on the other side. Noct, meanwhile, warped from enemy to enemy, dodging their sword and axes with ease, switching from daggers to sword to spear seemingly at random.

This fight continued on for a while, not helped by the appearance of yet another ship just as they thought they were finishing off the last of them. Even more Magitek troops poured out, distinguishable by the way the landed from the ships and stood back up like it was nothing, and the fight went on even longer.

Of course, Noct got another headache as a faint quake could be felt even from where they were. The guys noticed it, and put themselves in a triangular position around him until he recovered.

"Another headache?" Gladio asked in clear irritation at the frequent headaches. "This is not normal." They all knew that, but said nothing because they still had magitek's to fight. Finally, after yet a third wave of them, the four were able to get back into the Regalia and resume their drive to Lestallum.

They pulled in with the usual complaints from Noctis and Prompto about the stifling heat, and made their weary way to the inn, all four ready to collapse into bed despite the still fairly early hour. Of course it wasn't that simple. They entered the hotel and were greeted by Talcott, Jared, and Iris. They told them about finding the Royal Tomb, and a sword, and then went to get a room for a night. It was at this time that Noct had another headache, this one was worse, and lasted longer.

"Not again." Noct groaned as it passed. Iris, having not seen Noct's headaches before now, moved close and asked him if he was alright. Prompto felt another flash of almost-jealousy and a 'stay-back-from-him!' feeling that he pushed aside.

"He'll be fine." Gladio waved off his sister's concern, turning to the guys. "But we ought to check out this so-called disc." As they were in agreement, they were about to head out.

"Then look no further than the outlook. We can use those viewer things." Prompto suggested, having used them the other day when they were looking around Lestallum.

"No substitute for being on site, but it would be a start. Let's see what we can glean of Noct's condition." So the four left the hotel and made their way to the outlook. The even crowd was a bit annoying to navigate, but they arrived and found a not-so welcome face.

"What a coincidence!" The maroon-haired man spoke, turning around to see them. He seemingly ignored Gladio's mutter of 'I'm not so sure it is'. "Aren't nursery rhymes curious things? Like this one for example; From the deep the Archeon calls, yet on deaf ears the God's tongue falls. The king made to kneel, in pain he crawls." That sounded alarmingly like Noct's headaches, and possibly...

"So how do we keep him on his feet?" Prompto would do anything to help Noct, even if it meant trusting the words of this creep.

"You need only heed the call. Visit the Archaean and hear his plea. I can take you." And that offer was not in ANY way suspicious. Note the sarcasm. But that was kind of where he was thinking they'd need to go anyway. If creepy-McCreeper wanted to 'help' them, then he'd put aside, mostly, his misgivings. None of the others got the same vibes off the man as Prompto did.

"We in?" Gladio asked the others as they got into a 'huddle' to discuss it. Prompto wanted to say 'hell no. we can go without that creep.' but he held off his opinion until Iggy and Noct spoke their opinions.

"I don't know..." Noct had picked up on Prompto's misgivings, and was side-eyeing the blond in mild (as in not-readily-apparent) concern.

"We go for a drive..." Ignis spoke up then.

"But watch our backs." Prompto finished. "If things get dodgy, we bail?" He suggested. His agreement seemed to assuage Noct's concern enough to get him to agree. Their 'guide', who then introduced himself as 'Ardyn' grinned at them in a mildly creepy way as he led the four up to the car park. He spoke the whole way, tone reminding him of the condescending purebloods like the Malfoy's.

About his car, how it paled next to the Regalia, and whatnot. Prompto was honestly not interested. Then, Ardyn decided to choose the person who would drive the Regalia, electing Noct. Prompto barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the pointless grandstanding it felt like 'Ardyn' was doing. They agreed and went to the Regalia, pulling out and following after Ardyn in his car.

They already knew the way, but the man insisted on driving at the speed limit and reminded them to follow him without getting too far, as well as to not tailgate him. The whole manner with which he spoke to them sounded so condescending and subtly derogatory, that Prompto's inner feline instincts were raising its' hackles invisibly.

The group speculated on Ardyn during the trip, with Noct calling him a 'creepy old dude' which Prompto readily agreed to.

"Hey, we just passed the turn off to the disc... what is he thinking?" They found out when he stopped at the gas station with campers. They ended up deciding to stay there over-night, which was probably a good idea, as it WAS getting late.

The following morning came all too soon, and they continued on, heading back the way they'd come and turning off at the correct point. Their discussion turned to how Prompto's camera would fare, Ignis' glasses, and then to Noct's driving and trying to keep their [Ignis'] mind[s] off it. Finally, they slowed down at a gate the Empire had put up some time ago, after Lucis pulled back behind the Wall. Ardyn told them to go on ahead after getting the gate opened up.

Prompto was all too happy to see the back of him, though he was starting to find it hard to focus on anything as they got closer to the Meteor. He tried to focus on the guy's, on Noct and the subtle magic energy that he gave off, but it was hard to do, as they were approaching a much more 'loud' magical energy. For lack of better description.

They soon had to get out of the Regalia and continue on foot, and soon found what looked like a Royal Tomb, hidden away in front of a LARGE Meteor in a crater. And by large, he meant mountain-sized. That thing could have easily wiped out the Earth in the time of the Dinosaurs as far as Prompto was concerned. It was also the source of the energy that was now practically _buzzing_ in the air and around Prompto. His own magic was wildly jumpy, to the point he was too jittery to manage any kind of spellwork, even if he had his old wand back.

He was not even sure if the Animagus transformation would be possible at this point in time, the energy to wild to be able to even concentrate on such things. Sparks were jumping off his skin in tendrils of magic colored a mix of his own earthy-green-hazel, and the blue-crystalline magic of this world.

 _~End~_

A/N: going to end it here... because you've waited long enough for this chapter... and if I continue from here, we won't stop until the end of the 'chapter' of the game. This is a decent place to end. Next chapter I plan to finish this and the Fulgurian's part... maybe even the Regalia-reclaiming bit... though that one _might_ just be a Stray Bullets side-story rather than main story thing. We'll see. In case I don't post a new chapter for a month or more again, Happy Halloween!

((this year's plan of being my Comrades character will/has not come through, though I plan it for next year!))

word count: 2,167


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: -starting- Oct. 26, 1am. I'll actually start writing the chapter in the morning (like 9am if I wake up early enough before work...) [and now it is April...oops]

* * *

Prompto was sat in the dropship, trying to sort out everything that had just happened, Noct propped up on his shoulder asleep. Gladio was going between eyeing Ardyn suspiciously and keeping an eye on Noct and him. He tried not to blush as Noct shifted slightly, feeling the dark strands tickle his neck. Ignis was asking questions of Ardyn, though the man was being annoyingly evasive and creepy.

The longer he spent in the man's presence, the less he liked him and the more he was reminded of a creepier Voldemort really. Ignis and he had found a route down and arrived just as Noct was getting started to fight back against the attacking Archaeon. They joined in, easily bantering with each other, despite the magnitude of fighting an Astral.

Prompto had kept half his attention on Noct, the rest on dodging and taking down Imperials. He tried not to think too hard about whether or not he was fighting MT troops or real people and for the most part didn't let himself focus on any of it. He was good at that kind of compartmentalizing thanks to the Battle of Hogwarts.

Now, after the fighting was done and they were in a questionably safe situation, Prompto could relax some and just sort through everything. He could feel the jumpiness of his magic due to closeness to that creep Ardyn, but tried his best to ignore it. They luckily weren't in the ship for long, being dropped off near a campground/haven not far from the Chocobo post.

Prompto glanced at the reddish-pink haired man every time he felt eyes on him, only to never catch him looking, but once he looked back to Noct who was sat beside him, he could feel the gaze return. It made his hackles raise and he had to hold in the agitated hisses that wanted to escape him. He was unsure of whether it was his feline instinct or his snake instincts that would be more dominant in that instance.

"Well then gentlemen, I shall leave you here. Do hope you find that car of yours soon." Prompto really wanted to wipe that smirk off the man's face but kept close to Noct instead. They kept a wary eye on the ship as it took off again before heading to the outpost for the time being. Being around other people seemed safest for the right now. Prompto made a quip about scrubbing himself raw in a hot shower until he felt normal again, earning a huff of a laugh from all but Ignis.

Ignis looked not unapproving, but thoughtful instead. It was almost like he hadn't even heard the other.

"So Iggy, want to share your thoughts?" Prompto had sidled up to the silent advisor as they walked.

"Just thinking it odd that he took us so far from the Disc when he would have known the Regalia was close by. I believe he intended to separate us from the car for some reason or other." Ignis frowned slightly. "What that reason is, I cannot guess." Prompto hummed agreement. It would have been easy for him to drop them off at the Regalia since it wasn't that far from the center of the disc technically speaking.

"So the Empire will have her. They better not mess with her." Prompto scowled. He wouldn't put it past the Empire to tamper with their mode of transport. "We should bring her to Hammerhead and have Cindy look her over once we get her back then." He knew Cindy would notice any tampering of the Regalia. The guys nodded agreement just as they arrived at the Chocobo Post.

The smell of Chocobo brought a small smile to Prompto's face. He was fond of most bird species, due to his beloved familiar Hedwig whom he missed dearly, but Chocobo's, in particular, were just so adorable! As a kid, he'd wanted a Chocobo of his own so badly, had many Chocobo plushes and keychain/phone accessories of the fluffy yellow bird.

They rented birds for them for a week, since they didn't know how long they would need to find the Regalia and spoke to Wiz, who had some errands for them to tackle if they could. They learned from him that the Empire had blocked the Duscae region off from the rest of Lucis and set up inspection points at the gates leading to Leide and Cleigne.

That stank of a setup of some kind from Chancellor Ardyn, so they were essentially grounded in one region, aside from Prompto turning into a 'flying monster' [aka Quetzlcaotl] and bypassing the checkpoints, that was. However, he wasn't sure if he could carry more than one of them at a time, so that was only good for a back-up plan in case they got swarmed by a veritable horde of MT's.

The group took turns with the showers, Prompto arguably taking the longest. He scrubbed himself raw and still felt gross, just the memory of Ardyn's eyes on him making his skin crawl. Some instinct really didn't like the man, so he was relieved to be far away from him. After the shower, Prompto met the others at the table outside the camper they'd rented for a few days. They had ordered food already, so they were able to dig in as soon as the last member joined them.

"So, what's the plan?" Prompto made sure to swallow his mouthful before speaking.

"I've contacted Cindy, she will make inquiries on our behalf to locate the Regalia, for now, we can think of this as a sort of break. There are some errands we can run in the meantime." Ignis the ever practical man. They had been asked by a few people to go look for this or that in the Duscae region, and this was as good a time as any for it. Luckily they'd done all the urgent-sounding 'jobs' already, so taking the Chocobo's to run these errands would be fine.

It was also a good way to kill time while waiting on word of their Regalia. They finished eating then headed out on the Chocobo's. First, they took on some hunts nearby, then looked for a Chocobo Wiz had told them about being injured, then they helped that woman Sania with catching frogs, then they ran into a guy that was fishing who challenged Noct to catch a Crag Barramundi. Of course, this took a few days, so by day four they were ready for a break.

"So... what are the odds the Empire has the Regalia?" Prompto asked, unnecessarily since the odds were rather high. It was likely the Empire had snatched the Regalia while Ardyn was 'escorting' them to safety.

"It is most likely..." Ignis was in agreement. They had asked Cindy to check around the garage's throughout Lucis, but none of them had high hopes of their car being anywhere but in Imperial clutches. "We should wait for word from Hammerhead before making any plans."

Prompto sighed then noticed something.

"Oh hey, it's Umbra!" He noticed the dogs arrival quickly. The others turned to look. With their attention off him, Prompto let a frown cross his face for a moment. He could feel something on the edges of his awareness, a whisper of cold that had invisible hackles raising and made him wary. The sensation was not unfamiliar to him, now that he thought back on it.

He'd felt something similar, though somehow fundamentally different, before. With Titan, the Archaeon. A 'ping' of energy not natural to this world, shifting rock and ancient earth. Now that the Meteor was gone, the awareness of this other energy was much stronger. The movement of the guys drew his attention and he sprinted after them, following Umbra. Finally, the dog(Messenger?) stopped and turned around.

A woman, dressed in an almost Japanese-style of robe, stepped out from behind one of the trees that bordered the far side of the Ranch (opposite to the campers' location). She was beautiful, in an inhuman way, ethereal almost with that sense of otherworldly power he'd felt before. Noct seemed to recognize her, for he made a soft 'ah' sound when he saw her.

"Gentiana..." That was definite surprise in Noct's voice.

"Hear me, O King of the Stone." She had a strange accent and was archaically formal. "By the Stormsender's blessing will the path to the Stone be opened. The Oracle goes hence in her King's name." At the mention of 'The Oracle', Noct visibly reacted.

"Luna... Where is she now?" Prompto tried not to let jealousy at the concern for Lunafreya in Noctis' voice show, but it was still a sharp sting. He was also worried about Lunafreya, but he was still jealous of anyone having Noct's attention and possible affections. He could admit, if only to himself, that he was rather possessive when it came to his crush/friend, always wanting his attention. He was not nearly as subtle as he liked to think himself.

It was sheer luck that Noct was rather oblivious about such things as people being interested in him romantically.

"The eye of the Storm." Gentiana's voice broke through his musings. "When the covenant is forged, the Oracle and ring shall await their King at the Walls of Water. Stray not from the path." The group only looked away for a short while, but when they looked again she was gone. The strange energy was gone as well.

"She is a Messenger, a spirit faithful to the Oracle," Ignis explained when he noticed Prompto's confused expression. That sort of explained the feeling he got from her, but not entirely.

"For real?" Had none of them felt the hidden _coldpowerfulOtherworld_ that she gave off?

"We're going beyond real now, pal." Gladio huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. Umbra got their attention then, Noct kneeling down to untie the book and read Luna's message to him. It was solid proof that she was still alive and well, the relief was immense, though he noticed a lack of intensity that he'd expected to feel at finding out she was okay. There was only a sense of relief for her well-being, as a friend and not romantic in the least. True, he hadn't really felt any attraction to her before, having met her when he was eight, but he had thought that he liked her romantically after the years of sending messages to each other.

This revelation, or epiphany, made an invisible weight lift from his shoulders it felt like. Yet at the same time, he wondered what that meant for him. Unbidden, that dream came to mind and he felt his face heat slightly. Willing the thoughts and images his subconscious provided away, Noct wrote a reply after applying the sticker he bought from the Chocobo Post and returned the book to its place.

"Let Luna know, I'm okay and I'll see her soon." Noct rubbed Umbra's head and watched as the dog turned and set off to return to Luna.

' _Unto the King alone, this voice is heard._ ' Noctis stood as Gentiana's voice sounded in his head. Prompto twitched and looked around, not quite able to make out what was said, but feeling the voice projecting somehow. 'Creepy~' He thought to himself. He couldn't make out what was said, and it seemed to be directed to Noctis alone, but he could hear a static-y buzzing of a sort.

"Lady Lunafreya has done well to keep the Ring from falling into enemy hands." Ignis suddenly speaking made Prompto jump and swing around to face him. The group headed back to the outpost, calling their rented Chocobo's with the bird whistle Wiz gave them after they took down Deadeye.

"So, where to next? We need to get to Altissia, of course, but before that?" They needed to find the Regalia first, but until they located it they were pretty much twiddling their thumbs.

"To get to Altissia we would first need passage aboard a ship. Caem may serve us now as it did them then." To which Prompto didn't know what he was referring.

"The hidden harbor. Hmmph, just might work. I'll have Iris set it up." Gladio was already pulling out his phone and dialing his sister's number.

"So in the meantime.." Prompto trailed off.

"We head into the Storm." Noct finished for him. So the message sent to Noct via divine-being-telepathy was their next 'objective'?

"Another day, another deity." And of course this was his life. Couldn't have a normal, boring life, could he? Then again, 'normal' got dull really quickly. He shouldn't expect anything less than the absolutely most bizarre events to occur in his life, whether he was Harry Potter or Prompto Argentum. So long as his soul was the same, and his memories were still intact, nothing was ever 'typical' or 'normal' for him.

Of course, it had to start raining while they were making for the first location of this trial of the Fulgurian's. "So what exactly are we doing?" Prompto thought that a pertinent question to ask.

"Following a trial to some "runestones"..." Noct answered as he passed him on his Chocobo. Prompto nudged his own bird into going faster, starting up an impromptu race of sorts with Noctis.

The first 'stone' they found wasn't too far, though there was an imperial road-block and soldiers to take down first. At various intervals, Noct winced and paused while the staticky sound returned to Prompto's ears. It was so frequent that Prompto's patience was wearing thin. 'I swear, next time I see her I'll hew her for being so annoying about pushing us along.' Prompto thought as they made their way to the second stone, having finished off yet another squadron of Imperials after another 'reminder' from Gentiana.

The second stone was also 'guarded' by Imperials, more than the last one, but those were quickly dealt with. Then, with another message to Noct's ears alone, they were told to head back to Fociaugh, which was pretty much exactly where they'd started from. Further than that, even. Not to mention that the weather had been raining non-stop since they had set out from the Chocobo Post. His water-repelling spells didn't seem to stick on the Chocobo's feathers and thus were essentially rendered useless for them, since their legs got soaked from contact with the Chocobo's sides.

He hated the unpredictability of his 'old magic' sometimes. While enchantments on electronics didn't have the same negative effects as it used to, some of the wildlife were unaffected by various spells. His 'new magic', the magic he got from Noct, was far less useful for it seemed to have only specific purposes. There was the elemental spells, and then there were other spells that he knew of but hadn't learned how to use yet.

The Kingsglaive had healing spells they could use, and they'd been able to use the warping ability Noct had (he SO wanted to learn that method of warping, even if he had apparition. This method was silent.), and were better at a range of weapons Prompto could never hope to learn to use. He used a sword once in his training, and was essentially banned from ever using one again. The crossbow is one he was thinking about learning to use, if a Kingsglaive would be willing to teach him, but that was about it for learning new weapons for him.

* * *

A/N: omf... I AM SO SORRY TO MAKE YOU WAIT SO LONG! THANK YOU TO EVERYONE THAT HAS FAVORITED OR FOLLOWED THIS STORY RECENTLY! ((as well as everyone that liked this story from pretty much day one))-all caps is on purpose-

BTS' NEW ALBUM IS AMAZING AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH!

I HAVE SO MANY NEW IDEAS... AND WANT TO CHANGE PROMPTO A LITTLE TO MAKE HIM KNOW (FINAL FANTASY) HEALING MAGIC...

also: final word count 2,575 words

Also I am working on another FFXVxHarryPotter fic... a FemHarry one which is loosely based off of MWolfe's 'Prophecies, Kings, and Destiny'. I highly recommend you read it if you haven't already. It features Hermione arriving in Insomnia. While I don't usually read fic's not centering around Harry, this one is really good. (can u guess my favorite HP character?) I apologize for any errors I missed.


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